How to de-label the digital identity that your parents have created for you
Can we erase our digital past, in particular, all those photos that our parents have uploaded from us? During the summer, all the social networks register a great avalanche of photos and videos that parents make of their children and that, without the slightest restraint or the slightest zeal for their privacy, they publish happily in the networks social.
It is generated, in this way, the digital identity of children, so within the reach of any Internet user and so exhaustive and detailed. This circumstance is exclusive and characteristic of the new generations and generated by their own parents who are responsible for subjecting their children to this intense public exposure.
Verónica Rodríguez Orellana, director and therapist of Coaching Club, warns that "the months of July and August are traditionally abundant in the graphic diffusion of children playing, sleeping, eating, crying, taking their first steps, smiling and, in short, endless of scenes of everyday life with which the parents intend to share experiences related to the education of their children, their difficulties and their satisfactions ".
The importance of digital identity when children grow up
However, many times these confident parents are not aware of the oversaturation of data they provide about the family, cramming even the most reliable recipients and posting risky or, at best, improper details for the privacy and safety of their own children. .
It is in early adolescence that it reaches around 12 years old, when most children start social networks. This stage coincides with the formation of adolescents' own identity and their behavior is completely linked to their acceptance of their surroundings, which is why this online footprint created by parents often embarrasses and annoys or angers their children.
This family behavior is already the object of family therapy and the problem arises when the children who grow up, find themselves with a digital identity created by their parents based on photos since they were little in social networks. Photos that on many occasions are labeled and with name and surnames are no longer easy to erase. In this way, his personal fingerprint has been created, which in many cases the children do not like.
Tips for amateur parents to share photos
"It is important for parents to put themselves in the child's place at the precise moment when they can be aware of this content published in the margin of their own opinion.They must be scrupulously consistent with the fact that the children must assume the consequences of something they have not decided "explains Verónica Rodríguez Orellana.
In addition, it is very important for parents to evaluate the risks involved for the safety of both the child and the family, the publication of data that lead to locating and knowing the way of life of the protagonists of the edited document.
Plus:
1. When sharing in networks it is important to take into account the type of content that is going to be chosen and whether or not it is going to expose a minor.
2. Reflect on the fact and the need that moves parents to share everything.
3. Control the immediate impulses to show the world and your personal circle how happy the family is.
"De-labeling" the past
Many young people, 18 and 22 years old, would be delighted, according to Verónica Rodríguez Orellana, "to get rid of all the inherent labels derived from their presence on the Internet." This is the case of young people who have changed a lot from their childhood to their youth and that they prefer to forget the stage when they were introverted, they appeared dressed according to the tastes of their parents, they were overweight ... traits that they do not want to remember every time they connect to Facebook ".
To do so, the user can request their complete elimination in the different social networks, adhering to the privacy right.
- On Facebook. Each image that is published in this social network offers the option to "report photo" and you can ask the other person to delete the unwanted photos. You can also report the case to Facebook by following these steps: send an email to the support service ([email protected]), report the content to the social network on a page enabled to receive complaints about the infringement of the rights of privacy, share the experience with the help community of the platform and, finally, report on the page of infractions of Facebook conditions.
- On Instagram. The process is simpler. With the "Photo Options" the user can decide "Hide from my profile" (hide the image of his profile) and, in more options ("More Options"), you will find the possibility of "Remove me from Photo" (remove the label of the photo) and "Report Inappropiate (report as inappropriate content).
- On twitter. You can stop following the user or block it and also Twitter offers a form to report this type of behavior or content. In him it is important to mark the option "I am being mentioned directly".
- In Google, as a search engine,Since the ruling of the EU Constitutional Court in May, users can resort toright to oblivion and request that the search engine delete content that attempts against your privacy through a form dedicated to this purpose.
Verónica Rodríguez Orellana, director and therapist of Coaching Club
