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Via a shocking campaign, the CAMELEON association is once again calling on parents who are tempted to share photos of their children online. Because if the photos seem (obviously) cute, they have every chance of fueling cyber child crime which is increasing in France. Awareness is required.
Like 53% of French people, you may have already published photos on your networks of your child on vacation, on the way to school or proud of their gym gala. Like 43% of them, you may have even started this habit when your children were born, because they are so cute. Yet, the CAMELEON association which fights against sexual violence against children and adolescents, reminds us today: sharing photos of your children exposes them to sexual predators of whom you may not be aware.
Thank you, a shock campaign to raise awareness of the danger
To call for vigilance, the association decided to share a powerful but well-thought-out visual campaign, showing the extent of our errors. Thus, in a hidden camera video we see a mother enthusiastically distributing photos of her 6-year-old daughter to strangers, with many details about the little girl’s life.that’s when she’s at her gym class at 5 p.m.!”, “There, it’s at the exit of her school on the corner, she’s cute, isn’t she?”. A shocking and absurd gesture? However, it is daily on social networks.
At the end, this message is displayed: “Without knowing it, this is what you are doing by exposing your children on the networks. Sexual predators say thank you.”
“The aim of this campaign is to expose our habits in the virtual world and the reality behind it. Without stigmatizing parents but by calling them out on the consequences, which are often unknown”, explains Violaine Monmarché, Deputy General Director of CAMELEON in a press release.
Behind the screen, an invisible but very real danger
The objective is above all to show the dangers of “sharenting”, a contraction of “share” and “parenting”, which refers to the sharing of photos of children online by their parents, mentions the association. Because this content, once posted, escapes the control of those who publish it, becoming accessible to millions of people, with cached information that we cannot imagine (location, times, etc.).
Do you think they are harmless? They are in fact sought after by predators to be exchanged on pedophile forums or used to approach children for sexual purposes. Each post increases the risk that they will become their targets.
“The action may seem harmless, but considering all the information posted, it opens a dangerous gap in the daily lives of children that child criminals can exploit to interfere in their lives and attack them,” adds Socheata Sim, Advocacy and Action Expert in social engineering. Without taking into account the importance of the image rights and privacy of minors.
France, far from being an example in terms of cyberpedocrime
CAMELEON thus wants to raise awareness: 40% of people who have viewed child abuse content online subsequently sought to contact a child. “And like the faces of print predators, they look like Mr. Everyone, and are present in all walks of life.” insists the press release. Sharing images of children is not a trivial gesture. This is a risky practice that can jeopardize their safety.
“Our greatest satisfaction would be that at the end of the campaign, before posting their child on the internet, each adult asks themselves the question like us: “do I really want to share him/her ?” concludes Vilaine Monmarché.
Let us recall in this respect that according to the latest figures, France has 100,000 connections per year to download child pornography content and 160,000 child victims of sexual violence. It is the 5th country hosting child abuse content in the European Union.