Parents posting pics of their children on social media; here’s what you need to know about ‘Sharenting’

Navigating parenthood in today’s digital age is no mean feat. The way life is advancing with new gadgets and high-technology, the dos and don’ts of using them are many. With this, social media is a vast medium and we have often seen many parents proudly sharing their kids’ special moments.

What is ‘Sharenting’

Experts are raising concern about this growing trend – which is called ‘Sharenting’. It is a new term to describe parents, who excessively post their children’s lives on social media. While it comes from a place of love, pride and caring, the concerning factor here is safety. The words ‘Share’ and ‘parenting’ are blended together to form ‘Sharenting’.




While parents are using social media as a digital diary to look back, privacy and consent is becoming more important than ever. From sharing ultrasound images during pregnancy to sharing school information, extracurricular activities, parents unknowingly share personal information, which can be accessed by anyone with an intention to cause harm.

Raising concern around safety

While occasional sharing is harmless, certain details of daily routine can bring upon chaos or mayhem in a child’s life. Child psychologists and digital safety experts warn parents against excessive sharenting as it can affect their child’s privacy and identity. Many parents including celebrities maintain complete privacy or blur their kids’ face while posting pictures on social media. Sharenting expert Stacey Steinberg shared in Unicef blog, "For families who do plan to share about their children online, it’s important to consider the audience they are sharing with (what are your privacy settings on your social media profiles, how well do you know the people you have added as friends or followers, etc.), how much information they are sharing [such as locations and identifiable features like school logos] and whether or not that information could be embarrassing or harmful to their children now or down the road."

Being mindful about sharenting

Revealing a kid’s face or their activities in today’s AI age, the child can be vulnerable to identity misuse, digital bullying or unwanted attention. And no parents want their kids to go through such a moment. Once a post is live, it is difficult to erase from the digital space even it is deleted and by then the damage is already done. Parents need to find a healthier balance between what to post and what not to, until their kid reach a certain age, where they are ok to being exposed on social media. Parents need to be mindful about not oversharing details from their personal life – things that will reveal their whereabouts. Sharenting is ok until it’s done carefully keeping a child’s best interest in mind.