No faces of kids on my online outlets. Why?
People get shocked when I say that as a family photographer I have made the decision not to post children’s faces on my social media or website - regardless of their family’s stance on sharing.
Why? Doesn’t that make it harder to market my work? Aren’t parents sharing anyway?
My strong beliefs on this topic are rooted in two facts:
1) Children are susceptible to many dangers, from bullying to exploitation when their personal info and photos are available online.
2) AI tools are rapidly increasing those risks.
3) Children deserve to be the narrators of their own childhood. They deserve to have a say in what content should be shared and whom with. For this, they need to be older and aware of the decisions they are making.
4) My platform is but a drop in the ocean. But I am foolish enough to believe that each drop matters. When asked whether they would travel into past, people often express worries that a small change they make could result in huge repercussions in the future. Yet we often fail to see our small, present actions as possibly causing big changes in the distant future.