Social Media Safety: How to Protect Your Child’s Privacy
31 July 2025
Preserving your child’s privacy on social media is more important than ever. Here’s how to keep them safe online and the role your own social media presence plays in this process.
When it comes to navigating social media as a parent, the online world is still largely uncharted territory – a unique challenge that current and emerging families must face.
In our contemporary world, it’s almost impossible to escape social media. In January 2025, there were 20.9 million unique social media identities originating from Australia, equating to 77.9 percent of the country’s total population.
Social media has become the go-to place to read the news, communicate, and share photos and updates about their lives to family, friends, and the world.
Rather than being passive in educating your children about online safety, taking a proactive approach and informing them from a young age is an effective way to minimize harm and ensure they have all the tools needed to navigate the online world.
However, it’s not just their own social media usage that can compromise their safety, it’s yours as well.
Protecting Children On Your Own Social Media Channels
As a parent, you do not have to legally ask your child for their consent to share photos and videos of them online. In saying this, involving them in decisions about what you choose to post, or share, will help set a good example for your child and ensure they are protected online.
Consider before Sharing:
Avoid sharing photos, videos, or posting comments on social media that contain personal details. This includes:
- Your child’s full name
- The name of the school they attend
- Uniforms that identify local schools, sport teams, etc
- Identifiable landmarks or features that may reveal your child’s location
- Sharing the details of your child’s extracurricular activities
Quality over Quantity: Only share with trusted people
Instead of posting to all your friends on social media, most platforms allow users the chance to create a curated, smaller list of people to send content to. When sharing photos of your children, consider utilizing these privacy settings to limit who can see your posts.
Note: Even if you limit who sees your post, if one of your friends likes or comments on your picture or video, it may also be visible to their friends.
In addition, always check with other parents before posting content that includes their child. Some parent’s may never post their children on social media and it’s important to respect those boundaries.
Alternative ways to share photos and videos of your child
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to let your nearest and dearest know what is happening in your child’s life. To share their achievements, special moments and much more.
Rather than choosing social media as the avenue to do so, consider these other alternative methods that give you more control and ownership over who has access to the photos and videos of your children.
- Emailing photos and videos to family and friends
- Create a shared Google Drive or OneDrive
- Use text (SMS or MMS) rather than social media messenger apps
Start the Social Media Conversations Early
Despite most social media platforms having an age requirement, these things do very little to block underage people from using various social media platforms.
With more children than ever having their own phone to communicate with their family, concerns regarding usage and their access to social media apps are an emerging risk, growing each year.
A 2024 report from the eSafety Commissioner unearthed widespread social media use among underage children across Australia.
The study found that 80% of respondents aged 8-12 years old had used one or more social media platforms in 2024. Of these, 84% said that their parents or carers knew about their social media accounts and that they were active on these platforms.
Social media will not being going away anytime soon. After all, online portals and resources are used regularly for education as well as entertainment and socialization. While social media impacts teenagers and older children more than it does for toddlers and pre-teens, the earlier you begin to talk to your children about social media, the better.
Taking a proactive approach
Take the time to sit down with your children and create an open and safe space for them to question and consider social media. Be the safe space so they don’t feel obligated to make secret accounts and hide content from you.
Discuss the dangers around safety and security on social media. Why and how it’s important to never share personal information – including their phone number, address or any other personal information – online. What’s more, feel confident as a parent to be firm and decisive when required.
Some other helpful and simple steps to help keep your children safe online include:
- Supervise children online and monitor what apps they use
- Turn off chatroom functions and social media features on gaming platforms (such as Roblox)
- Keep devices in communal family areas
- Discuss the permanency of posting on social media
What are the Laws Around Underage Social Media Use in Australia?
To combat the rise of social media usage amongst children and teenagers across the country, the Australian Government passed a new law – the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 – on 28 November 2024.
This law will take effect in December 2025 and will introduce a mandatory minimum age of 16 for accounts across a range of social media platforms.
“We want Australian children to have a childhood, and we want parents to know the Government is in their corner,” stated Prime Minister Anthony Albanese regarding the implementation of this bill.
The social media platforms that will require users to be above the age of 16 to create an account in Australia includes:
- TikTok
- Snapchat
- X (formerly Twitter)
Companies that own these social media platforms could face fines of up to $50 million if they fail to act and assist in stopping Australians under the age of 16 from having accounts.
YouTube, Google Classroom, Messenger Kids and WhatsApp have not been included in the Online Safety Amendment Bill.
Explorers and Social Media Safety
At Explorers Early Learning, the privacy of families and children across all of our centres is managed with the upmost care and importance. Our privacy policy outlining these guidelines, rules and restrictions is be accessible here.
Every family must give their consent to allow their child to be photographed and if a parent does not wish to give their consent, we will always respect their decision and desire for privacy.
Content posted on an Explorers Early Learning social media channel, such as Instagram or Facebook, does not include images of children’s faces or identifiable features. In the instance that a child is featured across one of these platforms in a recognisable manner, parent consent must be explicitly given before doing so.
After more insightful and explorative parenting content? Be sure to check out our other articles on the Explorers Blog, including Flu Frenzy: How to Boost Your Child’s Immune System This Winter and our Child Care Subsidy (CCS) Explained deep dive.
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