Protect Children's Privacy When You're a Public Figure
Protect children's privacy as a public figure: what to stop publishing, what to ask schools and platforms to restrict, and what to do if a child is named.
To protect a child's privacy when a parent is a public figure, stop publishing anything that identifies the child or shows where the child is, set one written rule for every adult who posts, ask schools and clubs to restrict how they publish names and photos, and act within a day if a child is named or shown without consent. The child did not choose the audience. The parent did, so the parent carries the decisions.
The risk is different from the parent's own. An adult in public life accepts scrutiny, and the law and the platforms treat an adult's public activity as fair material. A child is a private person with a public parent, and most of the exposure comes from ordinary sources: a family post, a school newsletter, a team photo, a relative's profile, a tagged location. Almost none of it is hostile when it is published. It becomes a problem when it is collected, copied and attached to a name.
This guide is for the parent, or for the assistant or security lead acting for the parent. It is protective and limited to the child's own exposure: it does not explain how anyone finds a child, and it uses only invented scenarios. Every rule is described as of the official page named beside it, and these pages change, so check the live version before you act. This is information, not legal advice.
- Decide what the child's public footprint is before someone else does. For most families the right answer is nothing that identifies the child: no full name, no school, no live location.
- One rule has to cover every adult who posts: grandparents, other parents, nannies, coaches and the school. Your own accounts are the smaller part of the problem.
- Ask the school and clubs in writing how they publish names, photos and results, and what the opt-out is. A written answer beats a verbal assurance.
- If a child is named or shown without consent, capture the page, ask the publisher or platform to remove it, then ask the search engine to stop showing it. Sexual imagery of anyone under 18 follows a separate route, below.
What to stop publishing, and what to publish instead
Start with the content you control, because it is the only part you can fix the same day. The table sorts the common items by what they tie together, not by how harmless each one looks alone. A first name is nothing. A first name beside a school crest and a street scene is a profile.
Related readRemove Voter Registration Information Online| What you publish | What it can be tied to | Safer habit | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name with the child's photo | A searchable identity | Use no name, or a first name only on a closed account | High |
| School, uniform, club kit, team name | A daily place and group | Crop or choose images with none visible | High |
| Live posts and tagged places | Where the child is now | Post later, tag nothing, switch off location on the camera | High |
| Birthday and age posts | Dates used to verify identity | Say "happy birthday" without the full date | Medium |
| Home exteriors, door numbers, vehicles | A residence | Photograph interiors or close detail instead | High |
| Milestone and health stories | A permanent record the child may not want | Ask whether the child will thank you at sixteen | Medium |
| Back-of-head and silhouette images | Little by themselves | Usually fine, if the surroundings are neutral | Low |
Two habits do more than any single rule. The first is to read the background of an image before you post it, not the face. Street signs, a visible school name, a shop front or a recognizable view can say more than a caption. The second is delay. A photo posted a week later says where the child was, not where the child is.
Public life makes one more item matter: your own account and your own press material. Interviews, profiles and book jackets often mention children by name, age and school as color. Ask the interviewer before the piece runs, not after, and give a standard line you are content to see printed, such as "I keep my children out of my work." A line that is easy to repeat is usually the one that gets used.
One written rule for every adult who posts
Your own discipline protects very little if other adults publish freely. A family rule works only if it is short enough to be repeated and specific enough to be followed. Keep it to a page and give it to everyone with access to the child's life.
- Write the rule in plain wordsList what may never be posted (full name, school, live location, home exteriors) and what may be posted (a first-name-free photo on a closed account, for example). Two short lists are enough.
- Give it to each adult in turnGrandparents, aunts and uncles, nannies, tutors, coaches and the parents of close friends. Say it kindly and explain that the reason is the family's public role, not distrust.
- Agree what happens when someone slipsDecide in advance who asks for a post to be taken down and how. A calm, standard message sent the same day lands better than an angry one sent next week.
- Review it each termChildren change schools, join teams and get their own phones. A rule written for a six-year-old fails for a twelve-year-old.
Expect resistance from loving relatives, who post out of pride. The usual objection is "it is only my friends." A friends-only account is still a list of people who can screenshot, forward or lose a phone, and its privacy depends on every one of them. Ask for a smaller audience, not a perfect one.
What to ask schools, clubs and camps to restrict
Institutions publish children constantly: newsletters, websites, social posts, yearbooks, match reports and livestreams. They usually have a policy that nobody has read. Ask for it.
Related readRemove Bankruptcy From Search Results: What Can GoSend one short written message to the head of the school or the club secretary. Ask five things: whether the institution publishes names, photos or video of pupils and where; whether there is an opt-out and how it is recorded; who may photograph at events, including other parents; how long old material stays online; and who to contact when something must come down within a day. Keep the reply.
In the United States, the Department of Education's student privacy site says a school may disclose records it has designated as directory information without prior consent, after giving public notice of the categories and of the parent's right to restrict disclosure, including the period within which the parent must notify the school in writing. The page does not list which items a given school designates, so ask for the school's own notice and its opt-out form. Outside the United States, the same questions apply and the answer sits in the school's privacy notice.
Event photography by other parents is the gap most families miss: ask whether the school states a no-posting rule at events, and if it does not, ask for one.
What to ask platforms to change
Platform settings do less than parents hope. The general approach is to treat every account that shows a child as private by default, then widen only on purpose.
On any account that shows your child: set it to private if it is not a public-facing account, switch off location tagging and location history for the camera and the app, disable the setting that lets others tag the child, and review who can download or share. The Meta, YouTube and Google help pages that could be read for this guide did not set out these controls in full (YouTube's parent page, for one, says nothing about location), so check each one for where these controls sit and what a supervised mode for a minor actually changes before relying on it.
Related readRemove Your Date of Birth From the InternetWhat the UK Children's code expects
The UK Information Commissioner's Office publishes the Age Appropriate Design Code, known as the Children's code. It applies to online services likely to be accessed by children in the UK, not only services aimed at them, and it defines a child as a person under 18. It lists 15 standards. Three matter to a parent: settings must be "high privacy" by default, geolocation options should be switched off by default, and profiling options should be switched off by default, each unless the provider can show a compelling reason, taking account of the child's best interests, for a different default.
That gives you a reasonable yardstick wherever you live. A service that shows a minor's location to others by default, or that makes a young person's account public on sign-up, is behind the standard the UK regulator describes. It is also a basis for a complaint in the UK. It does not give you control over what other users post about your child, and it does not reach a school's website or a private family account.
What the law gives a parent, and where it stops
Four legal levers come up often. Each is narrower than it sounds.
| Lever | What it covers | What a parent can ask | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|---|
| COPPA (United States) | Operators collecting data online from children under 13 | To review, delete and stop further collection of the child's data | Does not cover what adults post about a child |
| UK Children's code | Services likely to be accessed by under-18s in the UK | Better defaults and a complaint route through the regulator | Does not govern individuals or private posts |
| Right to erasure (UK GDPR) | Personal data held by an organization | Deletion, with extra weight where data was collected from a child | Does not itself remove a page from the web or a search result |
| Search engine policy for minors | Images of under-18s in search results | Removal of eligible images from the search engine | The page stays online at the source |
The US federal rule is the most misunderstood. The FTC's COPPA frequently asked questions say the rule protects children under 13 and covers operators of sites and services directed to children, and operators of general audience sites that have actual knowledge they collect personal information from children under 13. Parents can ask those operators to let them review the child's information, delete it and stop further collection. The same FAQ says COPPA "only covers information collected online from children" and does not cover information collected from adults that may pertain to children. A relative's post, a school page or a news item about your child is outside it. The FAQ also notes that it represents FTC staff views and is not binding on the Commission.
Related readHide Your Employer Online: Source-by-Source RoutesOn the UK side, the ICO's page on the right to erasure says there is an emphasis on erasure where the request relates to data collected from children, and that this weight continues after the person is no longer a child. The page does not say whether a parent can make the request for a child, so check that with the ICO or a lawyer before you write on a child's behalf. Rules differ by country, and this article makes no claim about any law it did not read.
The practical conclusion is that the law is rarely your first move. A direct request to the publisher, school or platform usually reaches the right person faster, and the law is the reason you give if the first request is refused.
If a child is named or shown without consent: the first day
Move in a fixed order and keep it quiet. A public figure's response is itself watched, and a loud one draws the attention you wanted to avoid. The main risk after the first post is not the post. It is the second wave of copies.
- Check whether the child is safeIf there is a threat, or a sign that someone is acting on what was published, contact the police first and the internet second. Tell the school one factual line: what was posted and whom to alert.
- Keep a record without copying the childSave the page address, the date and time, and the account name in a private log. A screenshot of the surrounding page is enough. Do not store or forward extra copies of the child's image.
- Ask the publisher or poster, kindly and in writingSay that it is a child, that you did not consent, and ask for removal by a named time. Most posts by relatives, schools and small outlets come down at this step.
- Report to the platformUse the platform's own reporting route for privacy or for content showing a minor, and attach the page address. Keep the report number.
- Then ask the search engineOnce the source is down or refuses, ask the search engine to stop showing it. The next sections explain what that request can and cannot do.
- Tell the people around the childThe school, the club and the household should know what was posted and not to engage with the poster or with any follow-up message.
Do not reply publicly to the post. A reply gives it more reach, draws in people who had not seen it and gives a poster something to answer. If the poster is a stranger who appears to be building a pattern around the child, report that as harassment and take the evidence to the police, which is a different problem from an oversharing relative.
Asking a search engine to stop showing a child's images
Google has a specific policy for this. Its help page on removing non-explicit images of minors says Google removes images of people under 18 at their request, where the image shows someone who is under 18 or who died before turning 18. The person in the image or a representative, such as a parent or relative, can start the request.
Related readHide Your Home Address on Company RegistersThe policy has clear limits. It does not apply to images from a social media account or a web page the requester manages. It does not accept webpages that mix text and images: the request must contain only image URLs, and Google says pages with both text and images are not eligible under this policy. Google may make an exception when an image is newsworthy or a matter of public interest, which matters when the parent is in the news and the image is part of the story. For screenshots, the page advises taking them on the same device you use for the request and cropping them so only the face shows.
When a request is accepted, the images no longer appear in Google Image Search or as thumbnails in Search features. Google says it cannot remove them from the source website, so the page still exists and can be reached through direct links, other search engines and social media. That is why the order in the first-day sequence puts the publisher before the search engine.
Sexual or abusive imagery of a child follows a different route
If an image of a child is sexual, or shows abuse, it is not a privacy dispute and should not go through the steps above. Contact the police, and tell the child's other parent or guardian. Do not take or share screenshots or copies, and do not forward it to anyone to "check." Google's removal page says not to take or share screenshots containing child sexual abuse imagery, or content that presents someone under 18 in a sexual way. This guide did not read a reporting route for such imagery, so use the police and the platform's own report function.
Related readProtect family privacy online from your public profileFor a young person whose own nude or sexual images, taken before the age of 18, are being shared or may be shared, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children runs Take It Down. The page says the image or video stays on the person's device and is not uploaded: only a hash, a digital fingerprint, is provided, and participating platforms that scan public or unencrypted sites and apps use it to detect matching copies. It also states limits. It works only on public or unencrypted platforms that have agreed to participate, and platforms may have limited ability to remove content already posted, in which case the page points to NCMEC's CyberTipline. For images taken at 18 or older it points to a different service. The page is written for the person pictured, so a parent supporting a child should read it first and involve the child in the choice.
The most important thing you can do is respond without blame. A young person who fears punishment may hide a problem for weeks. Say first that the child is not in trouble, and that you will deal with it together.
A realistic timeline and an invented scenario
The timeline below is a typical shape for an ordinary case, not a promise. Cases involving a persistent poster, a news publisher or a country with a different legal system take longer. The scenario that follows is invented, with generic parties.
| Moment | Action | What usually happens |
|---|---|---|
| Hour 1 | Safety check, private log, one message to the school | You know what is public and who is aware |
| Day 1 | Written request to the poster, report to the platform | Many posts by relatives and small pages come down within a day or two |
| Days 2 to 7 | Search engine image request for pages that stay up | Outcomes arrive in days or weeks, and a refusal usually states why |
| Weeks 2 to 4 | Follow up on refusals, adjust school and family rules | Copies on other sites are chased one at a time |
| Month 2 onward | Monthly check of your own name and the child's first name with the surname | New copies are caught early |
An invented scenario: the sports day photograph
Assume a parent who is a broadcaster. At a school sports day, another parent posts a gallery of forty photographs to an open page, tagging the broadcaster's ten-year-old daughter by full name and naming the school in the caption. A fan page copies two of the images the same evening.
Related readRemove my photos from face search enginesThe broadcaster's assistant follows the sequence. The same night, she saves the page address and time in a private log, and messages the head of school with one factual line. The next morning, she writes to the poster, kindly, asking for the tagged name and the school name to be removed and for the two images of the daughter to be taken down. The poster removes them within hours. The fan page does not reply, so the assistant reports the copies to the platform.
Where one copy stays up on a small blog the platform cannot move, the assistant files a search engine image request with the exact image address. The image stops appearing in image results, though the blog stays online. The school later adds a no-posting-at-events rule.
Your next step: one rule, one message, one calendar entry
Write the one-page family rule today and send it to each adult who posts. Send one message to the school and one to the club asking about their publishing policy and their opt-out. Then add a monthly entry to your calendar to search for your own name beside the children's first names and to check the results with a clear head.
If a child's name, image or school has been published and you need a calm second pair of hands, our work for families covers this situation. Reputation Partners can review what is public, decide the order of requests with you and handle the contact with publishers and platforms, so that you can stay with the child.
See the page for families.
Questions people ask
Should I post my children's faces at all?
That is a family decision, and there is no single right answer. Many public figures show children only from behind or in a neutral setting, never with a name or school. The useful test is whether the image tells a stranger who the child is, where the child goes or when the child will be there. If it does, leave it out.
Related readRemove location data from photos before you postCan I make a school delete photos of my child?
You can ask, and you should do it in writing. Whether the school must comply depends on its policy, its legal basis for publishing and the country, so ask for the policy and the opt-out first. A school that has a clear opt-out will usually apply it. If it refuses, ask for the reason in writing and keep it.
Does COPPA stop other people posting about my child?
No. The FTC's FAQ says the rule covers information collected online from children, not information collected from adults that may pertain to children. It gives parents rights against operators that collect data from children under 13, such as the right to review and delete. A post by a relative, a school or a news site is outside it.
Can a parent ask Google to remove a child's photo?
Yes, in the cases the policy covers. Google's help page says the person in the image or a representative, such as a parent or relative, can start a request for images of someone under 18. It excludes images from a page or account the requester manages and pages that mix text with images. The image stays on the source site.
What if the poster refuses and the image stays up?
Keep your record, then use the platform's report route and the search engine request. If the publisher is a company with a legal address, a lawyer's letter citing your child's age and your lack of consent can change the answer, though it may also raise attention. Weigh that before sending. The aim is to reduce the reach of the image, not to win an argument.
Should I tell my child something has been posted?
Usually yes, calmly and at a level suited to the age. A child who hears from you first is better placed than one who hears from a classmate. Say what was published, what you are doing and that it is not the child's fault. For older children, involve them in the choice of what to ask for.
