Opening your Instagram account fr your child can function like keeping a photo album for them | Picture: iStock
One of the best things about being a parent is all the wonderful memories you get to make with your child and bear witness to as you watch them learn and grow. While your parents and grandparents kept baby books and albums for this, you live in a time where it can all be saved on the cloud or on an Instagram account for your child.
Some parents are digitally adept and social media savvy and they find opening an account for their child easy, but for others, it can be daunting.
A lot goes into opening an Instagram account for your child beyond just picking a name and posting pictures so we compiled this handy guide for things to keep in mind.
An email account is one of the most basic needs in today’s world and your child is going to need one anyway so you may as well create an account for them using some decent variation of their name so that they don’t have to end up becoming “johnsmith275574598@serviceprovider.net” someday.
You’re going to need an email account to create an Instagram account for your child.
You could also send letters as emails to the account throughout your child’s life to mark major milestones and give your child access one day for their birthday.
If the plain name and surname version of baby’s preferred user handle is taken, perhaps brainstorm a few cool variations that could work in case the name is taken.
They may want to change the handle when they are older but picking a good user handle is worth the investment because it is going to be some time before you give them access to the account.
For instance, 947 Breakfast host Anele Mdoda’s son’s Instagram account is called @alakhesworld.
Some people prefer captioning images as though it is their child writing. When done well, these can be funny and cute, however, things can also get a little weird when your friends and family know you’re the one behind the Instagram account for your child telling yourself what a great parent you are on behalf of your child.
The best route to go would be to write captions in your voice and to treat the account like a photo album curated by you, the parent.
The landing page of an Instagram account looks like a grid and sometimes, people take that into consideration when posting in order to achieve an overall cohesive look.
Some even use colour schemes and other great tools to demarcate or denote different time periods in one’s life.
Taking your child’s account theme into consideration before posting would be helpful in order to make achieving an overall look/theme easier.
Platforms like Canva even have editable templates and backgrounds for this.
While some parents don’t mind sharing their child’s cuteness with the world, others are more mindful about who they expose their children and private lives to. In that case, you may want to make the account private in order to control who follows and interacts with the account.
Keeping the account private is also a good idea if you would like to wait until your child is old enough to speak for themselves. You may find that they do not wish to have their pictures posted. In this case, a cloud storage solution like Google Drive, Dropbox or Apple iCloud may be a better solution.
For parents who don’t mind and believe they can manage just fine, an open account is still great, especially if you would like your child to partici[ate in influencer campaigns, modelling and the entertainment industry.
Before starting the Instagram account for your child, make time to inform friends and family that you will be doing so as it can be quite alarming to receive a notification that you are being followed on Instagram by your unborn niece or nephew or your friend’s 4-month-old baby.
It is also advisable to clearly state in the account bio who mom and dad are and that they are managing the account.
Bear in mind to never include any sensitive information like location info, school details and things that give away the family’s whereabouts or routine. You’d be surprised at what a determined person with ill intentions can piece together from simple content.
And last, but not least…
Please make it a point to ask friends and family for consent to share images featuring their children’s faces if you’re going to be sharing them on your child’s account.
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