The Riverine Grazier has made a decision to not publish images of children under the age of 13 online, in a move aimed to protect local kids.

At the invitation of the NSW Government and representing Country Press NSW, Grazier manager Krista Schade attended the Social Media Summit in Sydney last week.

The summit was a joint initiative of the NSW and South Australian governments and brought together national and international experts in reducing harms to young people caused by the pressures of social media expectations and cyber bullying.

“The eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant spoke of the hazards of sharing images of children online, on open pages, which prompted Tertia and I to reconsider how our newspaper handles images of young children,” Ms Schade said.

“Going forward we will publish images of kids in print, as always, but will not share them on our social media accounts or in our free-to-read stories online.

“It’s a small step, but we think it is an important one,” editor Tertia Butcher said.

“There has already been an incident involving a local family and images of their child being used to extort money, and we want to ensure we don’t put anyone in that situation.”

The Riverine Grazier also has plans to workshop a concise yet comprehensive photography policy for the company, after seeking input from the team at the Grazier and the eSafety Commissioner.

“We will continue to cover all our communities events and capture as many local faces as possible but we will keep photos of children for our print products only,” Ms Schade said.

“With the rise of AI and online predators we will change how we manage or website, digital newsletter and social media pages.”