Understanding the risks of children sharing photos and videos online, including loss of control, misuse by others, and long-term digital footprint consequences.
Photo & Video Sharing is the practice of children posting or sending images and videos, which once shared can be copied, spread, or seen by people beyond their control.
Sharing photos and videos is one of the most common activities for children and teenagers online. However, once an image is shared, the child loses control of it entirely. Photos can be screenshotted, forwarded, edited, or used in ways the child never intended. This guide helps parents understand the risks and have productive conversations with their children about responsible sharing.
Children share photos and videos through social media, messaging apps, and gaming platforms — often without considering who might see or save them. Images can be shared beyond the intended audience within seconds. In some cases, photos are used for bullying, shared without consent, or collected by individuals with harmful intentions. Even innocent photos can reveal identifying information such as school uniforms, location tags, or home addresses.
In your child's behaviour
On their device
Teach the permanence of digital images
Explain to your child that once a photo is shared online, they can never fully take it back. Even 'disappearing' messages on platforms like Snapchat can be screenshotted. Use the rule: 'If you would not want your teacher or grandparent to see it, do not share it.'
Review privacy settings together
Ensure your child's social media accounts are set to private and that location tagging is turned off on their camera and apps. Check who can see their posts, stories, and profile picture. Revisit these settings regularly as apps update.
Discuss consent and respect
Teach your child to always ask before taking or sharing a photo of someone else, and to expect the same respect in return. Explain that sharing someone else's photo without permission is not just unkind — in some circumstances, it can be illegal.
In immediate danger: call 999. For non-emergency police matters, call 101.
Concerned about a child but it's not an emergency? NSPCC helpline 0808 800 5000. Childline for young people 0800 1111.
This is practical educational content to support families. For case-specific concerns about a child's safety, contact the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000 or your local safeguarding team.
Myth: Video calls and livestreams are safer to share on than photos, because they're not saved anywhere
Fact: Anyone watching a video call or livestream can screen-record it without the people on camera knowing, so the same rule that a shared image can never be fully taken back applies to live video just as much as to photos.
Myth: Sexting between two teenagers who are roughly the same age isn't really illegal if it's consensual
Fact: UK law makes it an offence to create or share a sexual image of anyone under 18 regardless of consent or the ages of those involved; police guidance directs a safeguarding-first response rather than automatic prosecution in low-level cases between similarly-aged peers, but it remains a genuine legal and safety risk, not a grey area.
Myth: The main risk with photo sharing is a stranger or predator saving my child's pictures
Fact: A great deal of non-consensual sharing and misuse of images involves people a child already knows — friends, classmates, or partners forwarding or misusing a photo — which is exactly why teaching consent and respect among peers matters as much as caution around strangers.
At this age most sharing happens within family group chats, school apps, or gaming platforms rather than open social media, so focus on simple habits: always ask a parent before sharing a photo, and never share a picture of a friend without asking them first.
As children start using more social platforms and messaging apps independently, talk through privacy settings together and agree what's off-limits to share, such as school uniform, home address, or location, and explain that even a private message can be forwarded on by whoever receives it.
Teenagers are more likely to face pressure to share personal or intimate images, sometimes from a partner, so make sure they know that creating or sharing a sexual image of anyone under 18 is against the law regardless of who asks or whether both people are a similar age, and that they can come to you or a helpline without judgement if something has already been shared.
At this age most young people manage their own accounts and digital footprint largely independently, so the focus shifts to helping them think about how old posts or images shared during their teenage years might resurface later, for example when applying for jobs or further study, and knowing how to request removal of unwanted content from a platform.
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