Think before you post your child's photo - social worker

A Namibian social worker has urged parents to think twice before posting photographs and personal information about their children on social media, warning that criminals can use these images to create fake identities, manipulate victims and facilitate other crimes.

Social worker Eveline Amakali urged parents to limit the amount of personal information they share online, avoid posting children’s daily routines or locations and carefully consider who has access to family photographs.

“Your child deserves privacy, and you never know who may use those images for purposes you never imagined,” she said.

Amakali said many parents post photos of their children without considering the dangers.

“I always say children have no business being on the internet. If you are posting every milestone, every birthday and every school achievement, you are unknowingly creating a digital album that someone with bad intentions can exploit,” she said.

The warning follows recent media reports about Walvis Bay resident Theofelus Nghidinwa, who reportedly spent years financially supporting a son he believed was his, only to discover the child allegedly never existed after his former girlfriend was arrested for allegedly abducting a random child and presenting the boy as his.

The woman, Veronika Timoteus (26), is also accused of sending Nghidinwa photographs of different children over several years to maintain the deception.

Reflecting on the case, Amakali shared in a Facebook post that it illustrates the dangers of parents documenting every stage of their children’s lives online.

“I have been thinking a lot about this story. It is such a heartbreaking reminder of how vulnerable we become when we share every detail of our children’s lives online,” she said.

She warned that criminals no longer need to search for random images online.

“They just need one child’s photographs from birth to around five years old to create a believable story. They can convince someone they are watching that child grow up,” Amakali said.

She said she has encountered similar cases in her work, including one in which a man financially supported twins he believed were his before investigators established the children in the photographs belonged to another family.