Welcome to the world of sharenting.
Have you heard of "sharenting" or "over sharenting"? You may not know the word, but you sure know the practice especially by our local celebs, international celebs and the like..
SHARENTING : Creating a "digital dossier" that often goes back to before a child is born.
Many children growing up today will discover that their digital footprint began in the utero and didn't end there. This phenomenon has come to be known as "sharenting" - when parents share pictures and videos of their kids on social networks , creating an indelible trail of digital bread crumbs.
Recently, musician Kanye West drew attention by publicly responding to the use of a TIKTOK account by his 8-year old daughter, North. Then, ex-wife and child's mother Kim Kardashian also publicly responded to West's reaction, saying the account is monitored. While the case seems to be mere teasing between the ex-couple, it brought an important question in the background : the protection of children's image in the virtual world.
More data is collected about children growing up today than before. Their data is being collected through search engines, kid's apps ,smart speakers, connected toys and connected baby monitors.
When you post images/videos, info about your child on the internet, not everyone is looking at your children through the same lens. There are people out there with very bad intentions.
Sharenting can be helpful in creating an online support system for parents to share their own experiences and struggles with parenthood but in doing so , it can create a permanent digital footprint through posts that will live forever on the internet. Even if a post is deleted, it can still be preserved in the form of screenshots, archives, and recordings.
Everyone wants the world to know how wonderful their child is and those who don't are labelled as antisocial and obsolete. What they might not know is that they are making their kids data points and end up placing a target on their backs as adults for identity theft and bank fraud.
Then there is digital kidnapping which is a type of identity theft as well and the internet happens to have a lot of these identity thieves.
Sharenting can greatly affect a child's developmental years as they grow up in front of an online audience. Child psychology professionals warn of the risks that can entail overexposure in social networks both in the short term and medium term.
A study by Backlays Bank Institution estimates that by 2030 nearly two-thirds of identity-fraud cases affecting today's children will be due to "sharenting" .
Photos of children posted online can be used in a lot of harmful and illegal ways- for example on child pornography or pedophile websites, for digital kidnapping or threats, and identity thefts.
It might interest you to know that 50% of photos that are distributed in pedophile and child porn networks are taken directly from posts that are uploaded to the internet.
Some parents have admitted to seeing photos of their as low as 6 months old babies on pedophile websites while others have seen the images of their kids likeness to s*x dolls on Amazon.
Sharenting is fairly new and it seems innocent , however what a few know, is that it is a dangerous act that gambles with the safety of their child.
Even if your toddler’s account is private, hackers have been known to gain access and make do with those photos you uploaded which will later be used for exploitation of the children in fashion ,sex trafficking etc.
You might want to think twice before creating a digital footprint of your kids because ,after getting millions of views ,sponsors, tons of exposure or whatever but what is the ultimate price? I see some future resentment towards parents that were fishing for likes.
Not every trend is worth emulating .
Life is definitely about learning, growth and re-checking ourselves . Kids are precious gems and we are their advocates. They deserve all the protection and privacy. The internet is such a very dark place.
Let me know your thoughts in the comment section .👇🏿
ARE YOU GUILTY OF SHARENTING?
By
Mwambo Kate