We're either guilty of it or we have a friend or family member who is a bandit for it: oversharing photos of our children on social media. While posting an image of your child smiling into the camera  covered in food may seem like a playful and cute move to you - it could be dangerous for your child in the long run. When it comes to uploading baby photos on social media, some feel like the more comments and  likes they get the better, but who is really looking at your photos and how far do they reach  on the net? Scroll down for video . Snap happy: We all know someone who overshares on social media - but could they be putting their kids' lives at risk? Just last week, Australian woman Jade Ruthven was lambasted on her social media account by her friends, who were so sick of her  constant updates about her baby daughter that they wrote her a scathing letter demanding she stop. The shocking letter, littered with expletives and exclamation marks told the mother that they were 'so over' the running commentary on her daughter's life. And while this may be a harsh reaction to her social obsession, social media expert Sarah-Jane Kurtini believes people need to more aware of their ramblings on the web. 'I think people just have this inbuilt need to share,' Ms Kuritini told Daily Mail Australia. Know your privacy settings . It is amazing how many parents leave on their Instagram location settings. Set your location settings to off if you do not want people to be able to figure out where you and your children live. Only share with people who care . Ask yourself if all the people you're sharing your photos with really want to see them and will they protect them in a way you would. Explore private social networks . Private social networks offer a secure way to share the pictures of your children with your family and friends. Don't take any digital photos . Ultimately the only way to be 100 per cent sure that you don't  have a digital footprint is not to have any digital photos taken but this isn't a road the vast majority of people want to go down. 'In a lot of cases it probably is fine but when you’re giving away exactly where your family life is taking place, there's a risk and it’s probably more sensible not to do it. 'People have started to be less self-aware and when everything happens they put it online. What they don’t think about is who they’re sharing it with.' While Ms Kurtini said that she understands why people can get fed up of people oversharing their kids' lives on social media sites, she was disturbed at the letter Ms Ruthven received from her so-called friends. 'Everyone came out in support of her which they should have done because bullying shouldn't be tolerated and that letter was horrific,' she said. Too many posts: Jade Ruthven, 33, pictured with Addison, has been sharing endless pictures and statuses about her baby daughter on Facebook . 'No one has come out and said that the limit is one baby photo a week or one a month, but everyone seems to know when someone has stepped over the mark.' The entrepreneur said it's hard for people to know where the line stops when it comes to posting personal details online. While a person may thrive off 'checking in' at the city's fanciest restaurant or showing friends what they're missing at the local pub, they can't treat their children's photos in the same way and should not look for the same social validation. 'One of the scary things about social media is how it makes you check yourself the whole time and second guess whether people will receive it well and it can make new mums quite anxious,' Ms Kurtini said. Harsh words: The letter was sent to an 'baby spamming' mother after the author got fed up with the amount of pictures and statuses she was writing on Facebook about her child - and it has now been shared worldwide . 'As soon as your friends like it you're just putting it into a new feed and it’s not clear where they’re going.' Ms Kurtini, who is the co-founder of Tinybeans, a private social media network for families said that although parents are worried about what the dangers of sharing on social media are, they choose to ignore the warnings. In a recent survey of social media awareness, conducted by the University of Michigan, over 74 per cent of respondents claimed they had doubts about posting baby images on the web, however they followed the crowd and did it anyway. Worryingly, 51 per cent of parents offer up personal information alongside their photos that could identify a child's location and 27 per cent have shared inappropriate pictures of their baby. They also found that more than half of mothers and one-third of fathers discuss child health and parenting on social media - and nearly three quarters of parents saying social media makes them feel less alone. 'A thing we always say is to share with those who care and don’t waste your precious family moments on people who don’t want to see them,' she said. Social validation: Nearly 70 percent of parents said they use social media to get advice from other more experienced parents and 62 % said it helped them worry less . 'The people I share with would never share them on and would protect them as much as I would. Ms Kurtini believes the message has yet to sink in with parents who continually post inappropriate snaps on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and even tag their location in the photos. Ms Kurtini believes enabling the geographical location to appear on the picture is the most worrying trend of them all. A recent study found when sharing parenting advice on social media, common topics included : . Getting kids to sleep (28%) Nutrition and eating tips (26%) Discipline (19%) Daycare/preschool (17%) Behaviour problems (13%) 'The scary thing is that they don’t know it’s happening,' she said. 'I know my privacy setting so I know that level of comfort with what I'm going to share but it looks like people don't. Especially on photo-sharing site Instagram, doting parents are sometimes inadvertently declaring their whereabouts and over time it can become clear exactly where they live. Ms Kurtini said she has spoken to mummy bloggers and celebrities who are horrified to learn that their photos can be tracked back to their home address just by the switch of one button. 'If you leave your location settings on, there’s a location tag and you can hit it and the majority of people add their photos at home so you can pretty much guess where they live,' she said. 'It terrifies me. 'I keep seeing people doing it and I want to email them saying stop it, especially high profile people.' Stories of oversharing gone wrong have been rampant in the news, with one of the most extreme examples including a phenomenon called 'digital kidnapping' reported on earlier this year. Parents were shocked to learn that strangers were 'stealing' their kids' online photos and re-sharing them as if the children were their own. Sand selfie: Despite parents being concerned over their privacy settings on social media sites, they continue to post photos online, sometimes giving away their geographical location . In other cases, children's photos have become the target of cruel jokes and cyber bullying. Among the most notorious cases in recent years was that of a Facebook group that made fun of 'ugly' babies. 'Many people are often lulled into a false sense of security thanks to the familiarity of social media and don't realise that the images or stories they post of their children may in fact be shared with a broader audience,' Ms Kurtini said. 'Parents need to approach their child's digital footprint mindfully.' The best way to do this is to know your privacy settings inside out. In many instances, it can take only a matter of mere seconds to deduce the road someone lives on from their social media post. Other precautions to take are to only share your snaps with people you trust and use a personal, private social media network.
There has been a rise in 'sharenting' - sharing photos of children online . The trend could be dangerous for your child in the long run . Who is really looking at your photos and how far do they reach online? People who don't turn off location settings are leaving kids vulnerable . An Australian woman received a scathing letter over posting baby photos .