Before You Post Their Childhood is written for parents and extended family members who share photos and stories about children online and want to do so thoughtfully. It does not ask you to stop sharing. It asks you to slow down long enough to make decisions you can stand behind—decisions about who actually sees what you post, what your child is able to consent to at each stage of development, and how today's share may affect the record your child will one day inherit.

The book moves through three recurring lenses: audience, consent, and future privacy. It examines how platforms are built to encourage more sharing, how content meant for close family reaches unintended audiences, and how the stories adults tell about children online become a narrative the child did not choose. It also addresses the family dimension—how to bring grandparents and other relatives into a shared approach rather than managing friction after the fact.

Two practical tools close the book: a worksheet for building a family sharing plan and a sample family sharing agreement designed to be revised as children grow and circumstances change. A pre-post checklist organized around the three core lenses gives any reader a repeatable set of questions to work through before tapping share.

The tone throughout is patient and non-judgmental. The book does not offer age-specific clinical guidelines and does not make claims about long-term psychological outcomes. What it provides is a concrete decision-making framework that parents and family members can apply the next time a charming photograph lands on a camera roll and the impulse to share it arrives a moment later.

Ellis Fenwick

Books