Sharenting: What it is and what it can do to your child

Health News

‘Sharenting,’ a portmanteau of sharing and parenting, is the act of documenting your children’s ‘highlights’ on social media, especially when it goes too far. Sharenting sounds a little too much like ‘sharting,’ and it is just as embarrassing. Childhood photo albums and home videos have been a source of mortification for untold decades, but that ritual humiliation used to be confined within family circles – which was bad enough. However, the advent of the Internet and the popularity of social networks like Facebook and video sharing websites like YouTube make moments best forgotten available for everybody to see. Imagine you were little George and Mrs. Lucas showed the Star Wars Holiday Special to anyone willing to see it. Wouldn’t that be enough to traumatize you into making The Phantom Menace?

The possible consequences of sharenting are actually more serious and even darker. For one, your child may become an easy target for cyber bullying. A new report by the University of Michigan (U-M) C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health on this phenomenon noted that a Facebook group came to prominence in 2013 for bashing ‘ugly’ babies (though I think the preferred nomenclature is ‘breathtaking’). “Sharing the joys and challenges of parenthood and documenting children’s lives publicly has become a social norm so we wanted to better understand the benefits and cons of these experiences,” associate director of the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health and associate research scientist in the U-M Department of Pediatrics Sarah J. Clark said in a statement released March 16^th. “On one hand, social media offers today’s parents an outlet they find incredibly useful. On the other hand, some are concerned that over sharing may pose safety and privacy risks for their children.”

A less known risk of sharenting is digital kidnapping. This consists of strangers appropriating online images of other people’s children and passing them on as their own in their personal social media profiles, sometimes with complex, fabricated back stories. Kind of like Robin Williams in One Hour Photo. According to the report, 67% of parents resort to social media for parenting advice on sleep, nutrition, discipline, daycare, and behavior, while 72% said it helps them feel “less alone.” “These networks bring parents together in ways that weren’t possible before, allowing them to commiserate, trade tips and advice, share pride for milestones and reassure one another that they’re not alone,” Clark said, but “However, there’s potential for the line between sharing and over sharing to get blurred. Parents may share information that their child finds embarrassing or too personal when they’re older but once it’s out there, it’s hard to undo. The child won’t have much control over where it ends up or who sees it.”

As a result, “by the time children are old enough to use social media themselves many already have a digital identity created for them by their parents” without their input or permission, Clark added. “Parents are responsible for their child’s privacy and need to be thoughtful about how much they share on social media so they can enjoy the benefits of camaraderie but also protect their children’s privacy today and in the future.” Thankfully, many of the parents seem concerned about their child’s privacy and safety; though ironically more seem more worried about the mote in other parents’ eye than the beam in theirs. For instance, 74% said they know a parent who over shares, including embarrassing information, disclosing their child’s location, and posting inappropriate pictures.

Related Read:

- What is ‘sharenting’ and should we be worried by it?

- “Sharenting” trends: Do parents share too much about their kids on social media?

- Will the rise of ‘over-sharenting’ mean the end of privacy for our children?

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