Sharenting refers to the practice of parents’ oversharing their children’s lives online. While it can be a way to celebrate milestones, connect with loved ones or document memories, oversharing comes with significant risks.

University of Alabama at Birmingham criminologist Hyeyoung Lim, Ph.D., professor in the J. Frank Barefield, Jr. Department of Criminal Justice discusses the dangers of sharenting and shares ways to protect children from these dangers.

Dangers of sharenting

Sharenting is mostly done with good intentions of celebrating milestones of children, but its consequences in terms of cybersecurity can be dire.

Sharing photos, such as those featuring a child’s palm, can expose sensitive biometric data, such as fingerprints. Publicly visible photos can be misused by individuals with malicious intentions — they can create fake images using AI or clone voices from videos for scams.

“Criminals can track a child’s location, use images for identity theft or even commit fraud by imitating the child’s voice to financially deceive parents,” Lim said.

Strangers may use public information to locate where a child lives or goes to school.

“Some criminals impersonate children online through avatars to approach minors via direct messages, posing dangers as serious as child molestation,” Lim said.

Parents should be mindful of allowing school websites to use their children’s photos and videos.

“People and schools often unintentionally overlook that, while they permit the schools to use their child’s photos only for use on institutional websites, they can be downloaded, screenshotted and spread,” Lim said.

Sharenting can also damage the parent-child relationship and create a lack of trust because sharing personal information without consulting children can compromise their privacy and lead to embarrassment or resentment as they grow older.

“It is important to note that publicly shared images or personal data remain in the host companies’ database/servers even if the account is deleted, so we can’t expect any permanent deletion once those images are shared,” Lim said.

Lim recommends talking to children and getting consent from them before sharing their information because “children who feel involved in decisions about their life are more likely to have stronger bonds with their parents.”

Margret Canter, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics, says relationships with children change as they age, and a parent or guardian should always want to be a trusted source and a go-to person for children if they have a question or a problem.

“If a post embarrasses or upsets a child, even inadvertently, then trust may be lost,” Canter said. “If a post does upset a child, then apologize and have a discussion with them about what they are comfortable with being posted. It is important to listen and validate their feelings and then make an effort to respect their wishes about their presence on the internet.”

Steps to avoid the dangers of sharenting

Lim says parents have an ethical responsibility to ensure their children’s safety online and recommends the following ways to help protect children’s cybersecurity.

• Utilize privacy settings: Limit access to posts by sharing only with trusted friends and family. Avoid making profiles or images public. Refrain from using children’s photos as public profile pictures, as anyone with access to the account can see and misuse them.
• Be selective with content: Avoid sharing sensitive details like Social Security numbers, citizenship documents or palm photos. The sensitive image may include images of undressed/underdressed kids, highlighting unique body features, location, or other identifiable features like school logos and landmarks.
• Blur or remove identifying details: Before posting, review photos or videos for personal or location-specific information and blur sensitive information.
• Communicate with your child: Talk to children, even those in preschool or elementary school, about how they feel regarding being featured online. Involve them in deciding what to share.

In the end, Canter says, when posting information about minors on social media, go with the gut instinct.

“I encourage parents that when sharing information about a child to think if it is something you would say to others in their presence,” she said. “If there is the smallest doubt that it would embarrass a child to talk about it with others, then really think twice about posting it.”