The Great Social Media Debate: Celebs on Why They Do (or Don't) Share Pics of Their Kids

The Oscar winner surprised fans in July 2018 with a rare photo showing half of 4½-year-old son Maceo-Robert’s face during their recent Bora Bora vacation. But the mother of two revealed she often contemplates when to safeguard her children’s privacy, especially when it comes to social media.

“That was a struggle,” Berry told Extra about her decision to show Maceo-Robert’s face on Instagram. “I really don’t like to show my kids very much … but I do realize … my people are, like, solid for me and me for them and I feel like I want to include them.”

She added, “But it’s a fine line because I don’t want to exploit my children … I want to protect my children, so I thought, ‘Half the face is good.'”

After welcoming daughter Stormi, the Kylie Lip Kit creator wasn’t shy about posting pics of her baby girl, whom she shares with boyfriend Travis Scott, on social media.

But that all changed recently when Jenner deleted all photos showing her Stormi’s face. A source told PEOPLE that Kylie is upset over the negative comments people are making about her daughter. Kylie responded to one Instagram user who asked why she’d “cut her baby out” of a recent selfie, saying, “Yeah I cut my baby out. I’m not sharing photos of my girl right now.” 

The actress and author has a good reason for not sharing pictures of her 4-year-old son’s face, even though she doesn’t follow the same rules with her baby.

“I don’t post Sid‘s face bc my account is public and not only do I not want him recognized, harassed or interrupted in his daily life,” she wrote on Instagram recently. “I also don’t think its fair to expose him without his knowledge and understanding.”

Continuing, Mollen — who shares sons Lazlo, 6 months, and Sid with husband Jason Biggs — explained that she chooses to share photos of her younger son because he “is still just a head, doesn’t leave the house and is morphing on a daily basis.”

“But soon I will be blocking his face too,” she added. “Thanks for understanding.”

Despite sharing updates on her adorable kids — sons Bowie, Cy, both 3, and Zen, 13 months — the Avatar star and husband Marco Perego have no plans to show off their faces on her Instagram account anytime soon. “I just don’t want 16 years from now to get, ‘You are so disrespectful. You invaded, you exposed me and I wasn’t ready,’” Saldana told E! News. “Even though they’re babies and they’re under our care, it’s still their face.”

She continued: “Right now, they’re not in the position to speak for themselves or make a decision … I don’t want to make it for them.”

The Cravings author and Lip Sync Battle star is known for posting too-cute pics with 2-year-old daughter Luna, whom she shares with husband John Legend, on Instagram — but she does try and limit herself when it comes to how much she’s sharing with fans. 

“The more you hide, the more people are curious and then it becomes a really frustrating thing. So you don’t want to be too secretive,” she told PEOPLE. “But if you show a ton then you open yourself up to a world of criticism for showing too much. It’s hard because you want to keep their special moments really special.”

“And it’s not like I want to post her meltdowns or anything that’s going to embarrass her or get us in trouble — something like if she’s sitting by an outlet or [in] a car seat and the strap isn’t high enough,” Teigen explained. “That stuff is exhausting to deal with.”

As a proud mom of three — to daughters North, 4, newborn baby girl Chicago and son Saint, 2 — the wife of rapper Kanye West is known to regularly share family snaps of her whole family on social media, but has admitted to holding back as of late.

“I’m a little bit more cautious these days on what I do share,” she admitted on The View of her habits following her harrowing Paris robbery.

The Dancing with the Stars pro and husband Maks Chmerkovskiy were initially hesistant about sharing their 1-year-old baby boy, Shai, with their fans on social media, as Murgatroyd told Good Morning America after the couple welcomed their son.

“It’s nerve-racking because I specifically wanted to keep him very private from the beginning because we just want to keep him for ourselves,” Murgatroyd revealed.

“There’s going to come a time where he’s going to be with us walking hand-in-hand down the street and everyone’s going to be able to see him,” she said. “There’s so many moments and opportunities that are gonna come up very soon where you just, you can’t hide him any longer.”

While she hasn’t opened up about why 7-year-old daughter Bryn — whom she shares with ex Jason Hoppy — doesn’t appear on her social media accounts, the Real Housewives of New York City star did reveal why Bryn is no longer on the reality show.

“My daughter is not on the show for a couple of reasons. A child with a microphone on them, with a mic pack on them, is not really natural. That’s kind of like working. You have to be somewhere and you’ll have a microphone on you and it’s being filmed,” Frankel explained to PEOPLE.

One quick scan of the reality star’s social accounts makes it obvious just how serious the 90210 alum is about being transparent with her fans. From her kids’ lavish birthday parties to the family’s everyday activities, Spelling and husband Dean McDermott are almost always down to share the latest updates on their five kids: daughters Stella, 9, and Hattie, 6, and sons Liam, 10, Finn, 5, and 1-year-old Beau.