Cases are mounting in Japan where parents and grandparents who posted photos from a child's school sports day on social media ended up exposing other children's faces, along with the names of their schools and the areas where they live.
From Faces to School Names: The Exposure Risk Behind Sports Day Photos
Sanin Broadcasting, a regional broadcaster serving Tottori and Shimane prefectures in southwestern Japan, reported on the 15th that photos of children's sports day events have been appearing one after another on Threads and other major social media platforms.
Many of the posts leave other children's faces unblurred or show name tags, school signs and surrounding scenery in full view, according to the report. Concerns have been raised that such details can be pieced together to identify the school a child attends or the neighborhood where the child lives.
A particular problem is grandparents who are less familiar with social media and share photos with privacy settings left open to the public. Even when the intent is simply to share a memory within the family, making the photos visible to an unlimited audience can spread a child's personal information without anyone realizing it.
Once a photo is online, other users can save or repost it, making it difficult to stop circulation by deleting the original post alone. Because the possibility that exposed information will be misused cannot be ruled out, experts say caution is needed before a photo is ever uploaded.
Stalking and Deepfake Concerns Draw Warnings From Overseas Agencies
Photos on social media can pose an even graver threat to families who must conceal where they live to escape domestic violence or stalking, because a school or a recognizable setting in the background can reveal a victim's location.
One parent said: "My child appeared in someone else's social media post, and I'm terrified that my former spouse will find out which school my child now attends."
Schools have repeatedly asked families not to post event photos on social media or pass them on to others, but there are concerns that older relatives, including grandparents, do not fully grasp the risks of making such photos public.
Another concern is that images of children could be misused to produce sexual content generated with artificial intelligence. Britain's National Crime Agency and the Internet Watch Foundation recently said crimes involving sexual content created by combining images of children with AI technology are on the rise, and issued protective guidance for parents.
The two agencies said many parents do not properly understand that posting photos of their children online can open the door to criminal misuse. They advised setting social media accounts to private and sharing photos only within groups made up of family members or close friends. They also recommended that schools, sports clubs and similar organizations discuss any plan to post a child's photo online in advance.