DEBATE: Should you post naked pictures of your children online?

Users on Netmums have erupted over the concept of sharing naked pictures and videos of children on popular social media sites like Instagram.

Charlotte A(402) took to the site to argue that parents should be making greater efforts to protect their children’s privacy.

"I don’t understand why you’d put a nakey video of your kids on the internet for everyone to see?” she wrote.

"I mean really who knows who is looking at that and I just feel bad for the kid.”

User Lisa H(2385) agreed, writing: "Too many pedos kicking about to be plastering naked or semi naked pics of your children all over the shop, no matter how innocent you think it is.

But others were quick to argue that she shouldn’t be so uptight, with one user adding: “The naked body is such a taboo these days, it really shouldn’t be.”

But when more than 2,000 children in the UK alone have been reported to the police in the last three years for crimes linked to indecent images, the debate is an important one.

It comes amid concerns about sexting among young people.

Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC said in a statement: “Over the last two decades, digital technology has fuelled an explosion in the production and consumption of child sexual abuse images that increasingly involves the streaming of live video.”

Recent research by the NSPCC found many parents were unaware that it was illegal for children to take nude selfies. So do the lines blur when it comes to parents uploading technically innocent nude pictures of their children, albeit in their younger years?

Parents in France who share ‘intimate’ pictures of their children on social media could face heavy fines or even a prison sentence, with lawyers and police across the channel warning parents that their grown-up children could sue them for putting their security or privacy at risk for photos published when they were younger.

Jay Parikh, a vice president of Facebook, told the Daily Telegraph that the social media giant might even develop a notification system to warn parents against putting up pictures of their children online that have no privacy settings on them.

**What do you think? Do you post pictures of your children when they’re naked on social media? Why or why not? Let us know over on Facebook and Twitter (@CloserOnline). **

**You may also like to read: **