We have become accustomed to the use of social networks in our day to day, not long ago that they are there, some in fact are less than 10 years old, but still it seems that they have been there all their lives. We take a picture of our children playing in the park and in a few minutes they can be seen by their grandparents hundreds of kilometers away. Wonderful, right? It's amazing what we can do and how many people we can reach with just one click, as they say. But that is what we have to consider, with whom do we share the moments of our life and what do we share? But we are clear how we treat the image of minors in networks.
A hot topic in that nebula that unites the virtual world, that we now call 2.0, with the real one, 1.0 I suppose. Should we set a limit? What can we show and what not?
Where is the problem?
When we upload an image of our children to one of the social networks we have to keep in mind that we stop having absolute control over it. That this image, even if we share it with only a small group of people, can get out of it and spread without our knowledge reaching inappropriate hands. Ok but what is the problem. At the end of the day it is just a photo and except me and those with whom I share it should not interest anyone, except aesthetic issues of the type "what a shirt wearing the one in the photo" or "look what a handsome boy, I put it in my wallet and say it's my nephew "and those things that you already know.
It is clear that I I have taken the picture moved for a certain reasonIt is funny, tender, for the memory, but above all it is something personal and sure that I am able to convey that message to those with whom I share it, I know that they in turn will value it and appreciate it in that same measure and form. But maybe there is someone who gets the picture and sees it as something different, may be excited as is the case of certain individuals, or perhaps see an attitude, pose or whatever it does not consider correct and many other things. But that it's your problem.
Can today's photos be a burden tomorrow?
Internet is a window to the world and in the world there are billions of people, that we all agree on something is literally impossible. Therefore, whatever we do, there will always be someone to distort what we have doneEven to turn it around and turn something that was beautiful and innocent into something terrible and unpleasant. But there is one thing that I am clear about, The problem is not the one who takes a picture of their children playing in the sand and shares it with the world, the problem is those who distort and obscure everyday acts, either because of a misunderstanding or because his illness does not allow him to see reality.
They have the problem and that is something we forget, we tend to feel guilty for not being that person that others want us to be. We spend our lives trying to please others, trying to fit in, when what we should do is be ourselves and not worry about those who do not show the slightest interest in accepting us as we are.
Everyone has the right to eliminate all traces of his on the networks. We agree, but it is like when you insist on making all those photos that your mother made you disappear when you were a preteen with clothes that you do not know or how they did not enclose those who designed it and fluff under the nose. Whatever you do, it always appears some and it is not because your mother insists on martyring you every year at Christmas (OK, it is possible that in some families it may be a national sport), but because for her that photo will bring her many memories, memories only ones that surface with those images.
We should always keep in mind that most of us are not the crazy twenties who just wanted the night to start, that now we are at something else and that that life happened and left us with better or worse memories. And maybe, if we teach that to our children, to see things as they were at the time and not move situations from 25 years ago to the present, perhaps we would not have to worry because tomorrow's adults spend their lives trying to erase a past that It was never punishable until today.
What is the relationship between a boy who dresses as a child in the 80's and a physics degree today? Do we really believe that influences? How many do we know that he never got drunk when he was 20? (I don't deny there are any)
Limits? Yes, common sense
There are many people who say that a father has no right to use the image of his son, much less as he pleases. And they are right, but only in part. I think there are certain limits, common sense limits. I do not think it is good, or healthy, for a teenager that his mother uploads photos of how her back is full of acne, or how obese the girl is. It is not a good time to teach the world certain things and we must respect that there are certain stages in life where you want to stay isolated from our world. We would do the same with our partner, I am sure that we would not upload a photo that would harm him. Well the same with our children.
I still remember, and I get cold sweats every time I think about it, the afternoons in the doctor's office with my mother explaining to everyone present the sufferings of her son and other niceties. So if you want to know when "hanging" a picture of your teenage son on Facebook is going to be a good or bad idea, imagine telling the scene to his whole class in the gym.
Anyway we have all survived the maternal exhibitionism of our less graceful side.
I leave another controversial issue like Commercial use of the image of our children For another time.
How do you treat the image of minors in networks?
