an association calls on parents who publish photos of their children on social networks

Since Tuesday, the Caméléon association has been broadcasting an awareness campaign to fight against online child crime.

“Hello, here, I’m giving you a photo of my daughter, her name is Lia !” In a video shot on a hidden camera, a woman calls out to passers-by in the street and hands them photos of her daughter. “She goes to the gym not very far away, every Wednesday at 5 p.m.,” adds the child’s mother.

“She is six years old… We live in the street, not very far (…) This is her first day of school. This is at the gym. This is our last vacation in the Canaries”describes the cheerful woman. A clip of just over a minute in which a whole bunch of details are communicated. This may come as a surprise, but… “Without knowing it, this is what you are doing by exposing your children on the networks”, estimates the Caméléon association before concluding : “Sexual predators say thank you.” The clip has been shared since Tuesday October 8 on social networks and posters are displayed in the Paris metro, notably at the Charles-de-Gaulle Etoile station.

This practice has a name : it’s called the “sharenting”, contraction of “share” For “share” and parent. The consequences are still too little known, believes the association. Églantine Cami is responsible for youth advocacy : “There is a lack of awareness of the consequences that all of this can have. Whether it is the use of photos for sexual purposes, the diversion of content particularly via artificial intelligence with deepfakes but also the possibility of make contact with the child by stalking them online or in real life.”

Églantine Cami specifies that even the photo which may seem the most innocuous can be hijacked by a child molester: “Obviously, there are photos which, more than others, will suggest more things to a sexual predator: photos of a naked baby, of a child in a swimsuit… But we notice that there are completely innocuous photos, such as a child’s first steps, a victory in a sports club, the start of school… There is a risk in every photo because a photo is not only the child’s face but also his habits, his passions, his hobbies, where he goes to school.”

The youth advocacy officer shares a concrete example of this misappropriation of photos posted on networks : “A simple group photo from a summer camp. We realized that on the darknet, on pedophile forums, there was a debate to elect the sexiest little girl at the camp.” More than one in two French parents have already shared photos of their child on the internet. For 43% of them, it started as soon as the child was born.

The association warns of the continuity of online violence and offline violence : “40% of people who viewed child criminal content, videos, photos of child assault or rape subsequently sought to contact a child,” specifies Eglantine Cami. “Just because we’re behind a screen doesn’t mean we’re safe.”she concludes. Since its creation at the end of summer 2023, the Minors Office (Ofmin) indicates having received 150 000 reports.