"There is a shared responsibility to protect, respect and realize the rights of the child," Unicef has said.
"Governments businesses, parents, educators and children all have a role to play in advancing children's privacy and freedom of expression in a digital world." We are all in this together. And surely the easiest place to start is close to home, with those of us who are parents.
Some celebs trot their children down the red carpet at the drop of a camera, or parade them in front of the paps as overdressed, fashion-obsessed "mini-me" accessories. Other parents guard their offspring and their privacy like ferocious felines, ready to pounce like a lioness to prevent any unauthorized image or incursion into their private life.
It must be tempting for celebrities, where how much you are "liked" on social media can impact what roles they are offered and what sponsorship deals they can command. And if their pedigree is improved by a few photos of their little pride and joy, then no harm no foul. But the line should be drawn at the, albeit fuzzy, line where their own personal lives end, and those of their children begin.
Actors Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner may have feared a media backlash when they rode into battle for privacy protection for minors five years ago, but they understood the dual need to keep their own profiles high, but those of the children low. Jennifer Garner reportedly told the Assembly Judiciary Committee while petitioning for a change in the law, "I chose a public life and understand that this means sacrifices in terms of privacy for our jobs. In my case this means that I am sometimes photographed. However, my three children are private citizens and more than that…they're just little kids."
Where our little nippers are put in the line of fire, even on the side lines, there is a real risk that they will sustain collateral damage in the cross fire of the camera. Adopting the terrifying tigress approach may not buy you many followers or "friends," but it provides the better protection. And in the case of Berry and Garner, it resulted in more robust legislation to protect children from media harassment.
P!nk was right to see red over the hostility she received on social media. But she is even more right to keep her kiddos shielded from the public eye. However attractive, we must try to ignore the siren song of social media, and share our children only with our family and our real friends—not with countless strangers—and get just a little smarter when we reach for our smart phones.
Amber Melville-Brown is partner and global head of media and reputation at Withers Worldwide.