DPC's viral campaign on 'sharenting' children's photos and information online costs €615k

The Data Protection Commission said the campaign generated more than 150 million views worldwide, including 45 million views on its own social media channels

The ‘Pause Before You Post’ advertisement showed a young girl being approached by strangers who appeared to know intimate details about her life.

The Data Protection Commission (DPC) spent €615,000 on a viral campaign warning parents about the dangers of sharing photographs and personal information about their children online.

The ‘Pause Before You Post’ advertisement showed a young girl being approached by strangers who appeared to know intimate details about her life.

The DPC said €217,000 was spent advertising the campaign on television, in cinemas and on video-on-demand services. A further €14,375 was spent on paid social media as part of the campaign, which was launched nationally last November and shown during the Late Late Toy Show.

An internal business case said so-called “sharenting” could allow photos of children to be misused, including through artificial intelligence. It said information posted innocently by parents could also provide strangers with details about a child’s movements, routines, interests and other personal information.

The DPC said the campaign subsequently generated more than 150 million views worldwide, including 45 million views on its own social media channels. It said the advertisement was also seen by more than one million people in Irish cinemas during its six-week run.

An analysis following the campaign showed that seven in 10 parents of primary school children in Ireland had seen the advert in one form or another. The DPC said further analysis indicated that it had been the most-watched Irish advertisement of the past five years.

A business case for the campaign said projected costs were €250,000 for production of the video advert and €350,000 for buying advertising space. It also envisaged spending €25,000 on a public attitudes survey on the prevalence of “sharenting” in Ireland and France.

This research would focus on “the type of information parents share, how often, on which platforms, for what purposes, and whether respondents are aware of the potential risks involved in this practice.” The business case said the DPC had obligations under GDPR to promote awareness of risks, rules, safeguards, and rights when it came to personal information.

It explained that children needed specific protection because they were often less aware of the risks involved.

Potential dangers included the creation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and providing “bad actors with a roadmap to a child’s whereabouts.” Other risks included “embarrassment for [a] child as they grow older and bath-time photos/videos of tantrums/meltdowns etc. are available online for the world to see.” 

It said this type of material could even have implications for future opportunities including job prospects and university places.

Asked about the campaign, a DPC spokesman said: “The video went viral online and reached a wide audience. The campaign received extensive media attention domestically. It also attracted international media coverage from countries that included Australia, USA, Canada, South Africa, Brazil and the UK.”