What is sharenting?
Sharenting describes parents sharing content about their children online, such as photos, videos, stories and achievements. This information is often shared through social media.
With children now being one of the first generations to grow up in the social media age, there is a lot of content and information being posted of them online. A report from the Children’s Commissioner found that by the age of 13 child’s parents will have posted on average 1,300 photos and videos of them to social media. This can mean the child will have an online reputation before they have even created any social media profiles themselves.
Parents usually sharent with good intentions, as they want to celebrate their child’s milestones and share them with friends and family. However, oversharing can bring a variety of risks. Following our sharenting tips for parents can reduce this risk.
Risks of sharenting
Just like how children oversharing online is dangerous, parents sharing content about their kids can also expose them to risks.
Loss of privacy
The most obvious risk of sharenting is that it can result in personal information being seen by strangers online. Posting a first day of school picture can result in people knowing your child’s name and where they attend school.
Online reputation
Growing up in the social media age means children begin developing an online reputation from the time they are born. Posting content of them online, especially embarrassing photos or videos, can harm their reputation and potentially make it harder for them to make friends when starting secondary school. Bullies could also use this content to target your child.
Consent and trust issues
If you are posting images and stories about your child online without their consent, they may begin to lose trust in you. For younger children, they can not give informed consent in the first place.
Identity theft
Scammers can gather information about a child through their parent’s social media posts. This information can then be used to guess passwords or security questions. Scammers could even begin imitating your child, or using their identity to open accounts or scam others. Learn more about preventing child identity theft.
Misuse
Posts featuring children can attract the wrong kind of attention. People online might misuse any images or videos that a parent posts of their children. They could repost the images to inappropriate websites, widening the audience that can see and misuse the content.
Top 5 sharenting tips for parents
Review privacy settings on your social account
Get in control of who can see your photos by applying the right privacy settings. For an extra level of privacy explore setting up a private social network group with friends and family.
Check your network of friends and followers
Make sure you are happy that all your 100+ friends who will see your photo are actual friends. If not, consider only sharing with a select group of people.
Do a final check before posting
Take a second look at the picture before you post it to make sure it doesn’t reveal any personal details like your road or house number or their school name.
Get permission if other kids are featured
Posting a picture of their birthday, the first day at school or another milestone event in your child’s life which features their friends? It’s always better to ask the other parents before posting.
Remain conscious of your child’s digital footprint
If you’ve posted an image of your child from their first prenatal scan to their first day at nursery, it’s important to consider how this will affect them in the future. As they get older seek their permission before posting.