How to ask friends not to post pictures of your kids online
Parents worry about sounding overly paranoid or demanding when asking friends to take down photos, names, or location details. This social friction stops people from setting clear boundaries, leaving them struggling to protect their children's privacy against unwanted internet exposure.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from October 2026.
- This comes up 17.3× more often in r/Parenting than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Asking friends or family members to take pictures downDid this help you?
- 2Allowing photos only if faces are hidden and names/locations are omittedDid this help you?
- 3censoring or removing photos of children from public postsDid this help you?
- 4Asking the person directly to remove the pictureDid this help you?
- 5Telling the child's father to interveneDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Do I ask them to remove name and/or location? Am I being overly paranoid?”source ↗
“I don’t mind photos that don’t show our kids face but I prefer not to tie them to name and location.”source ↗
“I would ask them to crop my kid out, and to not mention their name at all on social media”source ↗
“I don’t want my kid on the internet and I have asked people/ family to take any pics down.”source ↗
“His friend keeps posting him without consent multiple times.”source ↗
“Every time I ask him to remove the picture of my child he says “stop texting me I don’t have to listen to you” “b*** his dad don’t care you the only one who tripping about it”.”source ↗
“Today he had posted my child to an edit that was graphic.”source ↗
“I would recommend censoring or removing this photo of your daughter, these are the kinds of things (as innocent as it looks) that end up being passed around online in CP forums”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 5Why are schools posting student photos on social media?
- 4What to do when your teen reposts wild or inappropriate content
- 4Can I refuse to let my employer post my photo online?
- 2How to handle kids' social media when all their friends have it
- 4Is it safe to send photos of my ID to a private host?
- 5How to stop being too overbearing in my child's relationships