Indian Parents Post Photos of Children Online Despite Grave Threat: McAfee Report

Although Indian parents are enlightened that images of their children posted online could finish up in the wrong hands, most of them are however sharing their kids' images online often without any consent from them, a survey by global cyber security firm McAfee revealed on Tuesday.

The survey, titled "The Age of Consent," establish 40.v per cent of parents in India (with Bombay being the about active) postal service a photograph or video of their kid at least once a day on their social media accounts, with 36 per cent posting a pic of their child once a calendar week.

Most parents identified the following concerns associated with sharing images online including paedophilia (sixteen.5 per cent), stalking (32 per cent), kidnapping (43 per cent) and cyberbullying (23 per cent), but many (62 per cent) don't even consider if their child would consent to their image existence posted online.

"What'due south even more alarming is that a whopping 76 per cent of parents say they are aware that the images of their children posted online could finish up in the wrong hands," the survey noted. Mumbai (66.5 per cent) was followed by Delhi (61 per cent) and Bengaluru (55 per cent) where majority of parents believed they accept the right to share images of their kid online without consulting them offset.

"The survey reveals parents are not giving plenty consideration to what they post online and how it could harm their children. Posting kids' information may compromise their personal information," said Venkat Krishnapur, Vice-President of Engineering and Managing Manager – McAfee. Responsibleness lies with parents to understand the implications of their social media habits/actions and the repercussions the kid may face, he added.

The survey found parents from Mumbai to be most active with 48 per cent posting a picture of their child on social media at least in one case per 24-hour interval in comparison to other metros like Delhi (38.5 per cent) and Bengaluru (31 per cent).

More than one-half of the parents surveyed (67 per cent) admit that they have or would share a photo of their child in their school compatible despite the chance of giving away personal data thus paving the manner for stalkers to go added details on their child's whereabouts. While 55 per cent of parents only share images of their child on individual social media accounts, 42 per cent are still sharing images on public social media accounts.

"Parents from Bengaluru (59 per cent) practise highest circumspection and post pictures of their children only from individual social media accounts, closely followed by Bombay (57 per cent) and Delhi (48.v per cent)," the findings showed. While it's clear that parents are worried almost physical risks to their children'due south safety, results betoken less business organization nearly the emotional risks.

Interestingly, it appears mothers consider the embarrassing side effect more fathers, with 47 per cent mothers admitting that they would never post images their children would exist embarrassed by, in comparison to 38 per cent of dads. To attain this conclusion, McAfee commissioned market place inquiry business firm OnePoll to acquit a survey of 1,000 parents of children aged 1 month to 16 years one-time beyond Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.

"Many social networks will tag a user's location when a photograph is uploaded. Parents should ensure this characteristic is turned off to avoid disclosing their location. This is especially important when posting photos away from home," said McAfee. Parents should only share photos and other social media posts with their intended audience, it added.