Terry Prone has said “enormous harm” can come from sharing images of a child publicly. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, the Communications Clinic Chairman said decades ago she had allowed photos of her young son, Newstalk presenter Anton Savage, to be used in magazine features about her. 

With hindsight, Ms Prone said she is relieved no lasting damage was done to Anton. 

“At the time, when he was six, seven, eight, he was delighted to have his own photograph in the newspaper,” she told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“He was in no position to give me permission to use his images, to involve him in my publicity. 

“The more I have aged, the more I have realised that our children are not accessories - they’re not props.” 

According to research by Security.org, three-quarters of parents upload pictures of their children onto the internet in a phenomenon sometimes called ‘sharenting’. 

Despite the common nature of the phenomen, Ms Prone said people need to be especially careful given the nature of the internet. 

“Enormous harm can come from it,” she said. 

“It didn’t happen in my case and it was before major harm could have been done. 

“One of the problems is that when you say that a young person is autonomous, that’s all fine and dandy until you add in, ‘They are the daughter of this famous person’.”

Parents as public figures

Ms Prone recalled the anger of an Irish Cabinet Minister whose child found themselves splashed all over the newspaper after a minor indiscretion. 

“[He] was furious and he rightly said that if the kid hadn’t been related to him, it would never have appeared anywhere,” she said. 

“Similarly, Tony Blair’s son got really jarred and was photographed lying in a gutter in London somewhere. 

“Again, if he had been just any kid, it would never have appeared - but because he was the Blairs’ kid, it appeared.” 

Ms Prone said public figures have a “double duty” to protect their children’s privacy in case they ever end up in the press themselves. 

“Even people who are not famous need to be very careful,” she said. 

“All the privacy settings in the world don’t prevent the situation where a friend of yours takes a screenshot of a particular thing you’ve put up and later when something awkward happens in your family, manages to upload that single screenshot to embarrass you and do damage to your kid. 

“I would say to people, ‘Don’t ever trust privacy settings, don’t trust social media.’”

According to DataReportal, 79% of the Irish population use social media.

Main image shows a split of Terry Prone and Anton Savage. Images by: Alamy.com