The sharenting divide: How children feel about sharenting
With the seemingly never-ending increase in popularity of social media and our apparently insatiable appetite for sharing every little detail with our friends and family online (and depending on our privacy settings, whoever else happens to be “listening”), it was only a matter of time before we all started to wonder exactly how much is too much.
“Sharenting” – where parents share content about their children on social media – has caused a great deal of controversy over the last few years, with Barclays bank even warning that parents could be making their little ones “fraud targets” in the future.
Not everyone is following the trend, however, with the Guardian reporting that more than half of UK parents do not post videos or photos of their children on social media, mainly due to privacy concerns.
But what do children think about so-called “sharenting”?
“Uncomfortable and bothered”
A report by the Children’s Commissioner, Life in ‘likes’, described how children talked about “feeling uncomfortable and bothered” when their parents shared some photos. It went on to say that for some children, this was due to the fact that they didn’t want lots of people to see them or they did not like the way they looked. Other children said they did not like to be “pestered and pressured” by their parents to share photos when they did not want to.
One child was quoted as saying: “I don’t like when my mum posts pictures of me, she just says ‘give me a picture’”.
Many children revealed that it was common for their parents to post a ‘bad’ video or photo of them. They said they didn’t like this because they were worried about people laughing at them.
According to the report, some children revealed that they had even tried to take away their parents’ smartphones when a bad picture had been shared.
What’s more, a report by Ofcom found that only 52% of parents who do share photos say that their children are happy for them to do so.
Reassuringly, the majority of parents who share photos (85%) revealed they were careful about who could access the material.
To share or not to share?
With many of us using social media on a daily basis, it seems that sharenting is, at least for the foreseeable future, an issue which is here to stay.
If you think your ex is sharing too much about your children online, get in touch with us today to speak to an experienced family lawyer.
This article was written by Megan Bennie and Lauren Howells.