Over 90 per cent of two-year-olds and 80 per cent of babies were present online, according to a US study conducted in 2010. Having parents sharing ultrasound pictures some children are on social media before they are born. This is the result of ‘Sharenting’ where parents share photos or videos of their children online.

There is an apparent conflict between the right for privacy that the child has or should have and the parent’s freedom to share information about their family with others. There are risks, however, when posting photos of very young children. Among these are privacy violations including dangers of identity theft, humiliation, and potential discrimination. It is, therefore, crucial to see whether parents have thought of these repercussions. To get some idea on how people think about these issues, I interviewed six Maltese parents.

The first question was whether these parents’ online accounts are private. Only one parent answered that their account is public, even though complete privacy cannot really be said to exist once something is exposed in cyberspace.

Three parents said that they do post photos of their young children online, but while one parent couldn’t think of a reason why, another parent said he perceives photos as memories. One of the respondents said that they post photos on Facebook with the child’s face not facing the camera and feel that the act of posting online gives other people the right or consent to share personal content. The same respondent further stated that there is a lack of awareness about what is being recorded and how this can be used in the future. For instance, “Facebook and Google... give the possibility to register face recognition.”

Another parent said that she doesn’t yet feel comfortable with uploading photos as her child is still just three-months-old but considers posting once the child is about four-years-old. Another parent was completely against shouting from the rooftops about their children because of the “abuse of children’s photos and the danger of their being used by anyone”.

Asked who is more likely to upload photos online, the mother or the father, two respondents answered “both”. Another two answered “the mother” while one said that the father is more likely to do so.

They were also asked about the minimum age they consider appropriate for their child’s exposure. One parent said that “there’s no minimum age; it is more about how much parents can resist the urge to express their emotions online and showing off their so considered, ‘life trophies/blessings’ with their friends on social media”.

Two parents believe that children need to be either four-years-old so that they are aware of what’s going on, or else fourteen-years-old, the age when most teenagers start going out with friends, leaving the parent no control over what they and their friends post. Another parent said that this depends on the consent between parents, whereas another commented that there is no such thing as a minimum age because one should simply not post such photos.

Will parents’ posts affect their children in the future? One parent denied that this could have any negative consequences. Another was not sure about this, whereas the rest of the respondents answered “yes”. It might also influence children’s perception as this becomes based on collected “likes” and comments which might throttle their development. They further commented that parents are not sharing their children’s photos with just their family members anymore “and if childhood memories are being posted on social media, one is giving access to anyone on his friend’s list (not necessary a real friend)” to intrude in their child’s privacy.

All the parents agreed that children’s identities are being overexposed online as parents seem to feel more and more comfortable to do so and also because it has become a trend. Two parents said that they “tend to reserve exposing pictures of the child at a later stage, hoping meanwhile to acquire more knowledge and ‘trust’ with social media”.

 

Kirsty Bonnici is a fourth-year student at the University of Malta currently reading for a degree in Communications Studies