45% of parents share details of their children online, known as ‘sharenting’, and overestimate the effectiveness of privacy settings, leaving them and their children vulnerable to cyber crime.
The warning come from the University of Southampton as thousands of back-to-school pictures of children are shared through social media platforms. Researchers have conducted the first study on the harms of sharenting that demonstrates a link between sharenting and children becoming the victims of cybercrimes and digital harms such as cyberbullying, online harassment, identity theft, identity fraud, privacy breaches, and contact by a stranger.
“Sharenting poses a real and present danger to our children. By proudly sharing photos and information about children on social media, parents are unwittingly putting them at risk of harm, both online such as cyberbullying, and in the real world – not just now, but also years down the line.”
said Lead researcher Pamela Ugwudike, Professor of Criminology.
“For example, strangers contacting them online may also target them offline. There is financial risk from information shared by parents being used to hack into their children’s future bank account. Affected children may also be denied the clean digital footprint required to pass the verification checks increasingly required when applying for official documents such as a passport.”
The team surveyed more than 1,000 UK parents and found that 45 per cent actively ‘sharent’, and one in six reported that their child had experienced at least one of the above harms. Through in-depth interviews parents, the researchers found that parents and stakeholders such as schools are largely unaware of the potential risks to children that sharenting poses.
Concerningly, despite parents believing profiles to be private, there is an ‘overestimation’ of the effectiveness of social media platforms to prevent images from being more widely shared.
“Most parents are aware of the obvious risks, but they are not aware that social media features like tagging and resharing can override cybersecurity features such as privacy settings. Even if your profile is set to ‘private’ and posts only visible to ‘friends’, if anyone is tagged then their friends can see, copy and reshare the post.
said Professor Ugwudike adding parents ‘overestimate the effectiveness of the privacy settings’ on social media platforms, creating a false sense of security.
The survey mirrored the findings of an 2017 Ofcom survey which found 45% of parents share information about their children online; in some cases quite sensitive information, including medical information.
Dr Anita Lavorgna, Assistant Professor in Criminology at the University of Southampton, said:
“Sharenting can seem like a useful way to celebrate special occasions and update family members around the world on children’s progress, but parents should be mindful of the risks of sharing personal details such as their children’s name and location, or sensitive information like their children’s health condition.”
The University is campaigning to raise awareness of the risks of sharenting, calling for intervention at government level. It will present its finding to Parliament later this year. In the meantime they have created video and briefings for policy makers, parents and schools. They have also designed a Sharenting Risk Awareness Checklist .
Concluding, Professor Ugwudike said:
“Although sharenting is done with the best of intentions, the practice itself is exposing children to harm and crime. It’s something that requires attention from policymakers and regulators such as the Children’s Commissioners for England and Wales, the Information Commissioner’s Office, and Ofcom, plus the social media companies.”
“Our research should serve as a wake-up call to regulators to address the issue. Children are at risk because of sharenting – for example, even children of primary school age can extract images from social media to create deepfakes.”
