Babysitter Social Media Rules to Set

By Kaitlin Hurtado on August 10, 2022

In a world where so many individuals use some form of social media on a daily basis, parents are often faced with the choice of how they want social media to impact the lives of their children. From their baby days to their teen years, social media can have varying influences on children, and parents are often the ones to take charge and form policies around social media and their children. If you opt to hire a babysitter to watch your children, you may even consider setting policies regarding social media for your caretaker.

While it may seem extreme at first, being clear about social media expectations with your nanny can keep your children safe while you are away. In most cases, your babysitter will never post on social media with bad intentions, but they may not be aware of any consequences that may come with posting your children on social media. Keep reading for ideas on babysitter social media rules to set.

Photo: Pexels

Is your babysitter allowed to post your children on social media?

First and foremost, you will want to decide whether or not your babysitter is allowed to post your children on their social media, and to what extent. You may be fine with sharing photos of your children on your personal accounts with privacy settings that you can control, but your babysitter is another story.

They may have their accounts completely public with thousands of followers, exposing your children to a much larger, much less vetted audience than the one you have on your personal accounts. If you request that your babysitter doesn’t post your child on social media, that’s perfectly reasonable.

If you do allow your babysitter to post your children on social media, you will want to decide to what extent. Are photos fully showing their face okay? Does your babysitter need to have their accounts set to private? Are they allowed to tag anyone or any location in posts involving your children?

How many details can your babysitter share on social media? 

Depending on how involved your babysitter is with your family, their job can be a very large part of their lives. As such, they may be more likely to post more about their life as a babysitter, from outings with the kids to anecdotes of their time with them. Be ready to outline what kind of details you want out there about your children.

Just as adults warn children never to offer up their full names or home address to strangers online, you do not want your babysitter to divulge personal information about your children, family, and home to their online audience.

Does your babysitter share their location? 

Most social media platforms have the ability to share the user’s location, whether it be similar to Snapchat’s map that shows users active in the area or a specific location tagged in a single Instagram post. Some opt to hide their location by not tagging or sharing their locations, while others do so in every post.

If your babysitter plans to use social media while on the job, ask them to turn location sharing off or not to mark their location in their posts. For example, if they decide to take your children out to a local park for a day trip, they should not be tagging the park in their Instagram posts. Similarly, they shouldn’t be marking your house as a location if they are posting from within your house while on the job.

Is your babysitter allowed to use social media while on the clock? 

Another thing you will want to consider is if you want your babysitter to use social media while on the clock. You may simply decide to request that your babysitter avoid any social media use on the clock. This way, they are less likely to post anything regarding your children, home, or the job.

You may just ask them to minimize their social media usage during their break times to avoid excessive posting or additional distractions on the job.

Are you going to monitor their social media? 

If your babysitter is allowed to post your children and home freely on social media, you may consider monitoring their social media. Whether this looks like a routine check-in to see what kind of content your child is being posted in or actually giving your babysitter a follow on social media, make sure you and your babysitter are on the same page about social media monitoring.

Some babysitters will prefer to keep their job and personal life separate, choosing not to post about your children or their job at all.

Once you think over what kind of social media expectations you have of your babysitter, have a discussion with them. If your babysitter is hesitant or does not seem to grasp the importance of why you are requesting these social media rules, explain your reasoning and provide examples to help walk them through your decision.

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