As the year comes to a close, I’d like to thank everyone on LinkedIn who took the time to read my blogs this year. The ACCC’s digital platform findings released last week, the news just published on Facebook’s misuse of photos, and the New York Times opinion piece over the weekend on why kids should not sacrifice their privacy for education, all indicate strongly to me that child online privacy will be a top item agenda for big corporate and the education sector in 2019 – driven by growing parental awareness and concern.
In this space, 2018 has been a turbulent year of highs and lows. Starting with the sad news of Dolly Everett’s death, the roll-out of Australia’s National Data Breach scheme, GDPR flexing its muscles in the EU and globally, draft National Principles for Child Safe Organisations coming out of the Royal Commission, NSW law reform around child abuse, gigantic personal data breaches made by global big tech companies and, finally, the ACCC recommendations related to breaches of consumer privacy. Phew-ee! (I say as I wipe my brow from furiously typing that last sentence…and I’m sure I’ve missed a thing or two…).
Sharing photos should be fun
A key element of child online privacy is the treatment of images – including how and to whom they are shared. When it comes to fundamentals, photo-sharing should always be fun and safe. Keep these important 3 golden rules in mind when sharing photos:
- Consider the risks to yourself and others before sharing any photos or videos that identify people via apps, websites and social media feeds
- When you take photos of family and friends, please ask their permission before you share their images more broadly or publicly
- If you are posting photos to social media, ensure you turn off location and name tags
A big thank you!
I wish to say a huge thank you to all the schools and families who have entrusted their photo management to pixevety. Your ongoing support makes a world of difference to the long-term success of this proudly Australian-owned company whose main mission is to limit and protect the digital footprint of our kids. We provide a safe, secure, privacy-enhancing digital environment for managing images on school environments and at home.
To my great team, thank you for all your countless hours of hard work, sleepless nights and undying dedication to child image privacy. Your efforts have resulted in a unique and cutting-edge platform. 2019 will be an important year for us as we continue to pursue perfection, driven by customer demand to finesse our platform’s unique privacy functionality.
And finally, a big thank you again to everyone who has taken time to read my LinkedIn blogs. I’ve enjoyed writing them and have received a lot of valuable feedback (which was always my main purpose in writing).
Until my next post in 2019, I wish you all happy holidays. Stay safe and please share photos taken during the holiday period respectfully and responsibly.
Colin
I am the CEO and co-Founder of pixevety, a company passionate about helping Australian schools and parents manage photo privacy and protect the digital identity of children. Please feel reach out and connect with me here on LinkedIn.
