Only with awareness and proactive choices, parents can create a positive digital experience
In the digital age, social media has become an integral part of everyday life, allowing people to connect, share, and communicate across vast distances. Of recent, in one of the studies, it was estimated that over 90 per cent of American children have a social media presence by the time they reach age 2. Today, many parents feel a sense of pride in their children’s achievements and milestones and want to celebrate these moments with friends and family. They believe that social media offers an easy, instant way to share updates and receive supportive feedback.
This practice of parents sharing photos, videos and details about their children on social media is termed ‘Sharenting’ and is becoming a buzz in town. This practice may include baby photos, milestones, family activities, humorous incidents and personal achievements. Sharenting often begins as early as pregnancy announcements and continues through the child’s growth, school events and sometimes even into adolescence.
Practicing sharing offers numerous ways to bridge physical distance and bring family members into the child’s life virtually by creating family bonding for families separated by geography and maintaining close relations with extended family members; building online support communities where sharing can bring camaraderie and guidance from other parents experiencing similar challenges and preserve memories that can later be revisited by both the parents and potentially the children themselves but on the contrary, sharing faces substantial criticism, primarily concerning privacy, consent and ethical issues. Studies suggest that children who discover their lives have been publicly documented without their consent may experience trust issues with their parents and may feel a loss of control over their personal stories.
As children grow up in a digital world, having a documented online presence from a young age can influence their self-perception, social development and relationships. Being exposed to a wide audience might increase the likelihood that children develop feelings of shame or insecurity about how they are portrayed online.
The word ‘Sharenting’ is a double-edged sword, offering benefits in the form of connection and memory preservation but carrying significant ethical and privacy implications. It becomes of utmost important for the parents to strike a balance and adopt responsible sharing practices such as seeking consent from their child when possible; avoiding sharing sensitive information such as full name, school, location, etc and periodically reviewing and removing older posts, thereby reducing their child’s digital footprint and enabling them to control their online presence as they grow.
Only with awareness and proactive choices, parents can create a positive digital experience for their families while protecting their children’s future in an increasingly connected world. Today’s generation needs to create a new normal and prioritise a child’s right to privacy, informed content as well and digital safety over the ‘posting dopamine cycle.’ Remember, the digital footprint of the child will last a lifetime, and privacy will give them power. Ultimately, responsible sharing will require mindfulness, ethical consideration, and the willingness to prioritise the child’s well-being above the immediate gratification of social media validation.
(The writer is an educator; views are personal)
