A few months ago I reconnected with an old nanny of mine. She was the first nanny I hired to watch the kids when I went back to work and was amazing. For some reason, when she was our nanny, I never thought to friend her on social media. A part of me was worried she would think I was kind of a stalker. I mean, who wants to be friends with their boss on social media? I didn’t want to risk crossing the boss/employee barrier.
Eventually I friended her after she was no longer with us, and along with the hundreds of pictures of her 6-month mission trip to Africa that ultimately ended her tenure with us, I found about twenty pictures of my kids.
Pictures I had never seen before.
She was always great about sending me the cutest pictures of the kids eating ice cream, playing with bubbles in the backyard, smiling from ear to ear…but these were new to me and exposed to her world. They were along the same lines, the familiar smiles, the adorable faces but just pictures I hadn’t seen.
Plus, they were on the interwebs.
I work in social media. I get it. I know the allure of posting the all-too-cute pic of the most adorable kids in the world (ahem), but these were MY kids. I felt like I had total social domain over them. And here was someone posting pictures on social media to all of her followers (NONE OF WHOM I KNEW) without my permission. I stopped myself there though. Had I ever told her not to do this?
Thinking back, I hadn’t.
I never thought to have this conversation with her because it hadn’t occurred to me that it would be an issue. Last time I babysat for kids that were not mine “social media” didn’t exist. People didn’t walk around with cameras attached to their hands that gave them the ability to capture every minute of every day. Devices meant not only for taking pictures of every minute detail but also for sharing that with hundreds of their friends at the touch of a button. It’s too easy these days. Moving? Tell all of your friends (ALL of them) in 30 seconds. Find out your pregnant? Who needs to make phone call, just post a cute pic of some baby shoes with a “coming soon” sign and people get the idea.
This was my first nanny ever. I was learning as I went. Apparently I had forgotten to have a conversation with her because I didn’t realize one needed to happen.
Getting back to the pictures. They were all innocent with captions like “how awesome is it that I get to watch these two cuties all day?!” They were great pictures, but I just felt weirded out that all of her friends were looking at pictures of my kids (AND LIKING THEM!) and I had no idea who any of these people were. I rarely posted pictures to MY own social media about my kids and I know each and every one of my friends. I got in touch with her and kindly asked her to remove the pictures (just for privacy reasons) and she totally obliged with an “oops! I never even thought about that! LOL” response.
Going forward I know I’m going to have to talk with anyone who watches my kids about social privacy, and guidelines about even just taking pictures of them in general.
Have you ever had to talk to a caregiver about taking pictures of your kids and social media privacy? Do you have existing guidelines with your kids’ babysitters/nannies etc. about social media posting? We’d love to hear them on our Facebook Page.