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	More than 900 images of children are being shared online by parents before their fifth birthday, despite many not checking their social network privacy settings, new research claims.</p>
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	According to the research, which was carried out by online safety site The Parent Zone on behalf of safety campaign knowthenet, on average 973 photos are posted online by parents before their children turn five, despite 17% of parents admitting they had never checked their Facebook privacy settings.</p>
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	The social network enables users to limit who can see what they post to the site by tweaking privacy settings between public and private.</p>
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	The research also claimed that almost half (46%) had only checked their settings once or twice, despite Facebook being the most common platform for photo-sharing. The campaign claims parents are running the risk of over-sharing and creating a digital footprint their child then has no control over.</p>
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	The knowthenet campaign is being run by internet registry site Nominet, whose chief executive Russell Haworth said: &ldquo;We all love to share those precious moments in our children&rsquo;s lives with friends and family and sites like Facebook have made it easier than ever. While the web helps relatives to keep in touch and participate in our everyday lives, it also has the potential to lead to accidental over-sharing.</p>
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	&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important to ensure that the correct privacy settings are in place to safeguard our personal information and content. Parents are creating a large digital footprint for their child from a young age, and the right settings are important if you want to stay in control.&rdquo;</p>
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	The Parent Zone&rsquo;s founder Vicki Shotbolt added: &ldquo;Today&rsquo;s youth is the first generation to grow up with social networks as an integral part of everyday life so it&rsquo;s important we stop and think about how they might feel about content that&rsquo;s shared now when they&rsquo;re older.</p>
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	&ldquo;No-one would want a potential employer browsing through their baby photos, so making sure privacy settings are applied properly is always a good idea. Of course parents should feel comfortable uploading photos to social networks, but thinking about whether it&rsquo;s an appropriate image first will go a long way to avoiding any unwanted repercussions in the future.&rdquo;</p>
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	The knowthenet campaign also issued a list of tips to parents for sharing photos online:</p>
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	Check your privacy settings: Take a look at your social network&rsquo;s privacy settings and ensure that they have been changed from the default. Make sure you&rsquo;re only sharing images with the right people and avoid oversharing.</p>
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	Think before you upload: If it&rsquo;s an image of a child, do you think they will thank you for sharing it once they&rsquo;ve grown up? Consider the feelings of others before posting images &ndash; if the child isn&rsquo;t your own try to ask the permission of their parent first. Most importantly, remember that once a picture is uploaded to a social media site it&rsquo;s very difficult to remove all traces of it.</p>
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	Stay in control: Don&rsquo;t use social networks as a replacement for your own photo albums or hard drive storage, as they could be at risk in the event of any technical glitches. And remember that some social networks will obtain rights to your images once you&rsquo;ve uploaded them.</p>
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	Keep up to date: Social networks regularly add new features and update their own settings so it&rsquo;s important to keep track.</p>
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	<a href="http://www.irishexaminer.com/examviral/technology-and-gaming/parents-could-be-oversharing-photos-of-their-children-because-they-dont-check-social-media-privacy-settings-332982.html">http://www.irishexaminer.com/examviral/technology-and-gaming/parents-could-be-oversharing-photos-of-their-children-because-they-dont-check-social-media-privacy-settings-332982.html</a></p>
