Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsParents’ Motivations for SharingConcernsTips for Better Sharenting

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Table of Contents

Parents’ Motivations for Sharing

Concerns

Tips for Better Sharenting

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If you’ve spent any time on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok, you’ve probably noticed it: parents sharing news, photos, and other information about their children. This phenomenon is called “sharenting,” a combination of the words “sharing” and “parenting.” The term can be traced back to a2012 articlein theWall Street Journalabout “oversharenting,” although even before that, many parents had started posting information about their kids on social media.Many parents may think of sharenting as an innocent way to connect with their friends and family and keep them up to date about what’s going on in their lives. After all, parents have always taken photos and shared updates about their kids. However, that practice used to happen in relative privacy.

Sharing on social media is far more public and, as a result, also more risky. Even parents who are careful about what information they share online and who they share it with run the risk of having data stolen or information used in ways they didn’t intend.

Given how new it is, the research on sharenting is still in its infancy, with the children whose parents have posted about them on social media since before they were born just now reaching adulthood.

This article will give an overview of what we know so far about sharenting, including parents’ motivations for sharing and when sharenting is a cause for concern. It will then conclude with tips for parents that will help them be as safe as possible when posting about their kids online.

Much of the research on sharenting focuses on why parents choose to share online.One study found that for parents of infants, sharenting can help alleviate the social isolation that comes with this period in their children’s lives, and that a desire for interpersonal connection also makes parents especially likely to overshare during this period.

While sharenting is often associated with the copious number of pictures posted of babies and toddlers, parents of adolescents also share information about their kids on social media. Research has shown their motivations include communicating their pride in their children’s accomplishments and informing friends and family about their kids’ lives.

Why Is There Concern About Sharenting?

Nonetheless, there are many reasons to beconcerned about sharenting, especially when parents overshare or share with too many people. Here are some of the potential pitfalls and dangers of sharenting:

Oversharing and Violating Children’s Privacy

Sharing sensitive information, particularly if it’s something the child considers embarrassing or private like details about their health or performance at school, could compromise the child’strustin their parent.

Yet, oversharing has the potential to do even more damage. For example, if a parent reveals identifying information about their child on social media, such as their full name, home address, or birthdate, and a hacker has also managed to obtain their social security number, they could steal the child’s identity and use it to apply for credit and other services. This could cause problems before the child is old enough to start a credit history of their own.

This can cause children to have a hard time distinguishing between strangers and acquaintances, leading them to trust strangers who could potentially be a threat to them.

Shaping Children’s Digital Identities and Impacting Identity Development

By the age of 2, 92% of American children have an online presence due to their parents' activity on the internet.That means parents are shaping their children’s digital identities well before children have started to think about who or what they want to be on social media or otherwise.

While scholars haven’t yet determined exactly how this impacts children long-term, there is speculation that this could play a role in the development of theirsense of self. For example, if parents share embarrassing or inappropriate information online, and their peers learn about, it could put them at risk for bullying.

This reality, or even just the fear of embarrassment, could seriously impact a child’s development, shaping theirsense of who they are.

Research has shown that adolescents tend to approve of sharenting as long as what their parents post is positive.Still, sharenting can be a source of friction between parents and their adolescent children.

Childrendevelop their identitiesduring adolescence and also use this time to experiment with self-presentation, including on social media. Consequently, if parents have already established an online identity for their child that’s led people to form specific perceptions of them, it may impact their sense of individuality and feelings of independence.

This may be especially true if the online image a child’s parents create for them contradicts the online image they’re trying to create for themselves.As a result, if parents share information that’s embarrassing or that adolescents don’t want disclosed, it may lead them to withhold information about their lives from their parents so they can better control what can and can’t be posted about them.

Posting anything onsocial mediacomes with risks, and there are drawbacks and dangers that are specific to sharenting. However, it’s also possible to share information about your kids on social media while mostly avoiding these issues. Some things parents can do to ensure they’re sharenting responsibly include the following.

Think before posting

If any of those questions raises a red flag, don’t share the post, or alternatively, share it with a smaller group of trusted people, such as a text chain that only includes your closest friends or a social media account that only includes members of your immediate family.

Don’t post negative, critical, or revealing information

Post anonymously

This will enable you to get the support you need, often from other parents who will be able to relate to what you’re going through, while protecting your and your child’s identity.

If your child doesn’t want you to share something on social media but you really want a close friend or family member to see it, ask if they would be comfortable if you texted the image or information to that individual.

Apologize if what you share frustrates or upsets your child

You can let your child know that sharing embarrassing information about them without their permission was wrong and that you feel badly for violating their trust. You and your child can even delete the post together.

Have open conversations about sharing on social media

For example, you might tell younger kids that the internet is accessible to a lot of people so we want to make sure that whatever we share doesn’t compromise our privacy and safety. Meanwhile, conversations with older children can get into specifics about sexual predators or other dangers that might come with sharing too much information on social media.

Don’t overshare

This is a rule parents should follow throughout their children’s lives. However, especially as children reach adolescence and start toform their own identitiesboth online and off, parents should do their best to increasingly restrict what they post about their kids.

Never use your child’s full name

Make sure never to share sensitive information on social media like your child’s full name, their address, or anything else that hackers or criminals could use.

Use privacy settings

While they aren’t foolproof, take advantage of the privacy settings on social media sites to limit who sees your posts.

6 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Walrave M, Verswijvel K, Ouvrein G, Staes L, Hallam L, Hardies K.The Limits of Sharenting: Exploring Parents’ and Adolescents’ Sharenting Boundaries Through the Lens of Communication Privacy Management Theory.Front Educ. 2022;7. doi:10.3389/feduc.2022.803393

Brosch A.When the child is born into the internet: Sharenting as a growing trend among parents on facebook.The New Educational Review. 2016;43(1):225-235. doi:10.15804/tner.2016.43.1.19

Haley K.Sharenting and the (Potential) Right to Be Forgotten.Indiana Law Journal. 2020;95(3):1005-1020.

Marasli M, Suhendan E, Yilmazturk NH, Cok F.Parents’ Shares on Social Networking Sites About their Children: Sharenting.The Anthropologist. 2016;24(2):399-406. doi:10.1080/09720073.2016.11892031

Ouvrein G, Verswijvel K.Sharenting: Parental adoration or public humiliation? A focus group study on adolescents' experiences with sharenting against the background of their own impression management.Child Youth Serv Rev. 2019;99:319-327. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.02.011

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