Children can be so adorable and once in a while a parent has that moment where they catch their child being cute on video and all you want to do is share it with the whole world because you are so proud. Every other week there is a new trending video in facebook or youtube of a child doing something cute with their parents and sometimes they go viral and bring a variety of exciting opportunities like being a guest on Ellen’s TV show etc to the parents.
As the way we communicate using social media evolves, it is eroding the boundary between what we consider private and public information in unexpected ways. These days you can post a cute video of your child to your facebook feed that is shared with just your friends and they share it with their friends, who share it with even more friends. It is a little wonder that we are often having to consider the effect of sharing on our families. Should parents be sharing images of their children? Is it safe to do so? Are there any negative implications to having images of your children go viral?
As a parent, you should be concerned about the privacy of their kids and family for safety reasons. The commonality of parental sharing raises a question around the privacy expectation and rights of minors. Is it possible for privacy to be breached by parents? Sharing pictures and personal information of the children sometimes called “Sharenting” is commonplace across most of the social media platforms. The question is does our desire to share our personal life contribute to a system that normalizes privacy threats?
Dangers of sharenting
Social media is filled with people who feel compelled to document every activity in their daily lives. Much of the content is in the form of images and videos from parents who may be potentially engaged in extreme over-sharing about their kids on social media.
Most of us are not aware of appropriate boundaries and the chronic dangers of sharenting on social media. Parents who are engaged in this behavior are most probably doing so to soothe their own insecurities and fears.
The most probable safety risks of oversharing about kids on social media are:
- Privacy issues- The lack of privacy patterns of social media for the digital footprints that parents are creating for their kids, you are risking the safety of your child
- Cyberbullying- Sharenting can attract predators and molesters towards your children. People are more likely to be involved in cyberbullying by oversharing personal information about their kids online. Bullies are stalkers are in the look for predators all the time
- Misuse of content- Pedophiles or sex addicts might use your posts as a mean of sexual content, even if you aren’t intended to do so
- Grooming- By oversharing your children’s information and personal lives, you could be giving access to potential predators and stalkers
- Fraud- Kids can be an easy target for fraud since all their personal data is available online
Sharenting Tips
I can understand that sometimes you can’t resist posting a beautiful picture of your dimpled baby or sharing their first words with your family and friends. As the camera is just a swipe away so many of us capture these precious moments without a thought. Oversharing on social media is not always harmful to you or your child. It can give you a normalizing experience being a parent and rejoices in getting social validation.
However, these are a few questions that you should ask yourselves before posting a picture or any information about your child online.
- Why do I want to share it on social media and what are my real reasons for posting it?
- How would sharing this information affect my child now or in the future?
- Does sharing this will help me to answer my queries or to achieve my target?
- What I want to experience by sharing this?
- With whom should I share this?
If you still want to share that on social media and have clear answers to all these questions, then you can post it on social media. Parents should understand that social media isn’t a platform to brag about how awesome as a parent you are or how beautiful your child is. As you share and enjoy every moment of their child’s life on social media, it is also important that you keep in mind the safety risks that may come attached so you make the right calls on what images are appropriate.