What to Consider Before Sharing Information About Your Child Online?
Children’s lives today increasingly extend into the digital sphere. What was once private and contextual is now often visible online, particularly through social media, where parents share moments, experiences, and daily routines. Yet behind this apparent openness lies a complex set of legal and safety risks that are frequently underestimated.
To explore these risks, Labebe spoke with lawyer Ana Tavkhelidze, who specializes in issues related to children’s rights, online abuse, and parental responsibility in digital environments.
As Tavkhelidze explains, it does not take much effort for a third party to piece together sensitive, identifying information about a child. Even brief exposure to social media content can reveal where a child studies, how their day is structured, which routes they take, or where they live. Viewed collectively, such details significantly increase a child’s vulnerability and may expose them to real-world harm.
Particularly serious are situations involving the creation, acquisition, or distribution of photo and video content that intrudes into a child’s private life. From a legal perspective, these actions are often criminal in nature. Violations involving sexually explicit material are considered among the most severe, not only because of their immediate impact, but also due to the nature of the internet itself—where content can spread uncontrollably, remain accessible for years, and enable further abuse.
Tavkhelidze also challenges the widespread misconception that harm inflicted online is less serious than violence committed offline. In practice, digital abuse often carries broader reach, long-term psychological consequences, and a high risk of repetition, precisely because it is difficult to contain or erase.
According to the lawyer, a central part of the problem lies in insufficient parental awareness of children’s rights and digital safety. Risk does not stem solely from clearly inappropriate images. Seemingly ordinary posts—school photographs, references to extracurricular activities, or indirect clues about locations and schedules—can be just as revealing.
Protecting a child’s interests in the digital age requires intentional restraint. Any decision to share information online should be guided by a simple but critical question: could this content allow someone to identify my child or track their movements? If the answer is yes, that information does not belong in the public digital space.
