Do you love sharing every milestone of your kid on social media platforms? While we understand it’s difficult to resist the temptation to share and talk about your little ones’ achievements, you should avoid sharenting due to its numerous dangers.
This term has become popular recently due to parents oversharing their children’s information on social media. It might seem harmless, but posting images, videos, and other information about your kids online can be dangerous. Knowing the dangers of sharenting and why one should avoid it is vital as a parent.
Sharing your kid’s information online gives way to privacy concerns
If you think setting your account to private will work as a safety net for your kids, you couldn’t be more wrong. Hackers and cybercriminals can easily break past this setting and get access to all your videos, photos, and personal information.
Images of your children from deleted accounts can also be recovered and distributed to others, making sharenting a risky affair. Truth be told, as soon as you post pictures of your kids online, you lose control of their privacy.
Moreover, sharenting increases the risk of online predators, who are always on the lookout for vulnerable targets. By sharing kids’ details online, parents make things easier for them, which is one of the biggest dangers of sharenting.
Identity theft becomes much easier with sharenting
You must have heard about identity theft in movies and laughed it off. However, in today’s tech-driven era, it is a harsh reality. Sharing can lead to identity theft. By posting kids’ pictures and their date of birth online, along with other crucial details, parents make it easier for others to steal and use their children’s identities for their benefit.
Psychological risks of sharing your child’s photos and videos online
Another drawback of sharenting is psychological risks. It can have detrimental effects on both parents and kids. For instance, a parent who constantly shares photos and videos of their children online can develop anxiety, a need for constant approval, a sense of being watched, and even low self-esteem.
Furthermore, little ones might feel embarrassed by some of the content you post online despite your good intentions. Since they are the subject, the content shouldn’t be making its rounds on the internet if they aren’t comfortable with it. Remember, once the photo or video goes online, it stays there forever.
Many kids feel betrayed as their parents violate their right to privacy. This especially happens when they go online for the first time as tweens or teens. Logging into a social media platform and seeing their entire childhood uploaded to the internet must not feel the best. Since tweens and teens tend to be more conscious about everything, your sharenting shenanigans from when they were little can give rise to unnecessary friction between you and your kiddo.
Despite these dangers of sharenting, if you still want to upload pictures of your kids, make sure to avoid these things. For starters, don’t share photos of your children in any state of undress, including those of your newborn’s bath time, on the beach, etc.
Also, remember to turn off your location and geolocation function while taking pictures. Never share your kid’s full name, address, places they like to visit or are currently visiting, etc. Overall, if possible, avoid sharenting altogether. If not, be mindful of what you share online and carefully scan through every piece of content for your kid’s safety.
