Dear Reader,

Do you ever share digital pictures of your grandchildren? I do, with the full blessing of their parents. I don’t, however, share any information that would identify them. That’s what our family is comfortable with.

My nephews, like many of today's parents, don’t share their kids’ pictures online. Instead, they have set up shared albums where close friends and family members can enjoy the latest antics of their children. This avoids starting a digital footprint for their children, as the pictures aren’t online in any public spaces. It also gives them almost complete control over who has access to their children’s photos.

I say almost complete control because there is nothing to stop any of us downloading one of the photos and sharing it with our friends or posting it on social media. But those of us who have access to the photos understand the importance of maintaining their families’ privacy. (Full disclosure—I am SO OFTEN tempted to share some of the photos of these adorable children!)

Last week I wrote a blog post that explained many of the reasons that parents are hesitant to share photos with grandparents. When I posted about it on social media, the response from parents was huge—between Instagram and Facebook the post has been shared over 2300 times! So many parents have been trying to get grandparents to understand how different digital photos are from the pictures we used to carry in our wallet.

It can be hard to see how there can be any risk in sending a photo to a friend or sharing it in a private Facebook group. But anytime you share a picture digitally—online or off—there are risks!

Here’s one example of how a photo on your phone can escape your control:

Say you send a photo of your grandson pouting in his highchair to a friend from water aerobics. She thinks he looks just like her niece’s baby, so she forwards it to her family.

Her nephew thinks it's hilarious, and he adds a clever caption and shares it on his Instagram account with thousands of followers. Suddenly, your grandson is a viral meme—without parents having any control of where it ends up.

​If you haven’t already read the blog post, please do! Parents want you to understand that they have valid concerns if they don’t want their kids’ photos shared digitally.

Not all parents are worried about this, of course. But it’s incredibly important that grandparents know and respect parents’ wishes about what is or isn’t shared, online or off. Read the post and talk to your grandchild’s parents about it. If they would rather that you don’t ever share photos, respect that. And remember that as adorable as your grandchildren are, your friends will never appreciate the photos of your grandchildren as much as you do.

Warm regards,
DeeDee

P.S. One thing that many parents recommended was having a digital frame that they can send photos to. The Aura is a popular choice! (affiliate link)

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Thanks for reading! If you found this valuable, please forward it to a friend!

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DeeDee Moore | Founder, More Than Grand LLC | morethangrand.com