Whether you’re gathering the kids for the annual family holiday card photo or you want to snap a casual group pic while on vacation, taking a decent photo of Gen Z teens can definitely be a challenge. Growing up with their faces on social media from before birth has a lot of them saying, “Enough is enough.” This is evident in the latest social media trend, deemed the “nose cover.”
The phenomenon recently went viral when Paris Fury, wife of boxer Tyson Fury, shared a family photo on Instagram in which her 13-year-old daughter Venezuela was covering her face with the front of her hand. Other parents were quick to recognize the gesture from their own camera rolls. There are several variations, like a peace sign or the back of the hand in front of the mouth, but the result is the same—the photo that’s taken doesn’t show the teen’s face.
Why are kids doing the “nose cover” in photos?
Parents and experts seem to think that the reason is that Gen Z teens don’t want the backlash of outright refusing to be in the photo, and this is their way of controlling whether their image is shared by their parents. And to be honest, we’re not surprised.
“After several attempts to snatch the perfect Christmas family photo, I turned to my teen and finally asked him, ‘Why?’” mom of a 13-year-old boy, Michelle Harris told The Sun. “’Is everything OK, why won’t you show up in family photos for the handsome boy that you are anymore?’ And then the big whopper: ‘Are you being bullied?’” Thankfully, the reason he gave was far less troubling. “To my surprise, he turned to me and laughed saying: ‘No, but I will be if you post pictures of me online without my consent!'”
The trend toward privacy and away from “sharenting” has been on an uptick with more parents choosing to keep their kids’ images private, including celebrities like Kristin Bell and Dax Shepard. We even saw France introduce a bill last year to stop parents from oversharing photos of their kids online. The bottom line is that we should all be more vigilant when it comes to when, where, and how our images are appearing on public platforms. The kids get it—and we should follow suit.
For those simply wanting to share moments with friends and family without making it a public display, there are safer options like the Tinybeans app (you can learn more and download it here!), which puts parents in total control of who can see and interact with photos and videos.
