Don't post videos of your children!

The world is a reality show and sometimes we can't resist demanding our share of the spotlight. We post funny photos of ourselves to amuse friends and followers—and we often post photos and videos of our children for the same reason.

We don't make any security settings because we don't want any privacy - we want everyone on the internet to melt when they see our little ones. Unfortunately that's not a good idea . Your children probably won't thank you for it later. And sometimes even now they are upset about it.

1. Think about the consequences

If you upload videos of your children to YouTube, sooner or later you will probably face trolls. They browse the site and leave nasty comments on the most popular videos, no matter how sweet, cute and innocent the video recordings are. If you want internet fame, you must be ready for this site: Watch the video below. Do you like it? Do you think the ugly comments are justified?

Bernard Brunu: She said he wants to masturbate lol
reven50: these babies belong in the trash
The Asian Blubby: His thoughts: Girl I will rape you if you sleep Girl
ceo: Don't adopt Korean babies. If you are white adopt white baby. Korean baby is expensive. Nobody wants the baby in Korea you can adopt it overseas.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg: if you dig deeper, worse words come. It's never nice to read such things about your children, but if you post your footage online without restrictions, you'll see comments like this sooner or later.

In the next example, a young child tries to say “banana” but keeps confusing the number of “na” syllables. So it usually becomes “Bana” or “Bananana”. Sweet, isn't it? Apart from all the positive comments, there are also some unknown users who call the child “stupid mushroom” because of his haircut.

Baruck Obuma: can you please take the tail away
Cannibal potato lesbian wrote: why is this mushroom alive and why does someone keep it as a child.
Hannah Bluhm: The mushroom has a name?
Tierney Spessard: Shouldn't this child be in the mushroom garden?
BoonieGames (Boonie4Eva): He obviously can't say banana, he's a talking mushroom!
And in between the voice of reason! HiitzJenna Roblox: Unoriginal comments everywhere about his hairstyle...

Finally, other users stood up for the boy. If you look at recent videos with the child, he does have the same hair and many call him "a mushroom", but usually add "sweet mushroom". In this case, the users brought the situation under control themselves, but the outcome could be completely different.

2. Ignore the trolls

In 2009, seven-year-old David's father posted a video on YouTube showing his son's funny reaction after a visit to the dentist. The video went viral and received a lot of positive comments, but also some negative ones:

As the father admits , he and his wife couldn't help but focus on the negative reactions... until they did something very smart: They decided to ignore the trolls. In the end, the couple turned an unexpected situation into a real family event and even made a bit of money through YouTube advertising.

People on the Internet sometimes resemble an inquisition. They'll watch your videos, discuss your voice, the song in the background, and the things lying around your room. And they will definitely share their concerns if something in the video seems strange to them and say you are not a good parent.

And for many it is completely normal to call you “gay”. All this happened to a father who filmed a video playing with his son:

Even though the father was clearly disturbed by the comments, he did the right thing: He didn't focus on each individual comment, but instead wrote a message expressing his attitude and then forgot about the trolls:

This video was released primarily for my family, who are spread across the country. I have no idea why this video got so big. This is my oldest son Ricky. His first word was “Dada”. The Diet Pepsi cans in the background aren't his. Yes, Mom is playing Super Paper Mario in the background. No, I'm not gay, but I sound like a crazy person when I talk to my kids in baby talk. I think I have given all the important information here. Thanks for watching and leaving positive (or negative) comments, although I would ask that you please refrain from cursing.

3. Turn off the comment function

The easiest way to protect yourself from trolls is to turn off the comment function. Relatives and friends can tell you their reaction in person, but others can then only rate the video positively (or negatively). It seems like the makers of the following video came to the same conclusion:

Judging by the comments on the video, the haters also found something to complain about in this video: this time the father's ears. What's worse is that normal people often ask inappropriate questions, simply out of curiosity or for the "good of everyone." This can be even more irritating.

4. Allow only a certain number of people to access the video

If you don't want your child to become an internet meme, consider restricting access to your videos. There are a few ways to do this:

Do you know the difference between unlisted and private videos on YouTube? These two privacy settings suit different situations.

For everyone and the wife: By default, all of your videos are public. This means anyone can view them and find them using search.

Not a bad setting, but one that can still get out of control: an unlisted video can only be viewed via a direct link. This means that you can send the link to your friends and relatives and they can watch the video, but you can also distribute the link further. And the whole thing can go wrong.

Private videos are the best option for concerned parents because they can only be viewed by you and the YouTube users you choose.

Facebook photos, videos, and posts can and should be protected in the same way. You should also read the article from “Think first – then click!” on improving privacy on Facebook .