Sharenting
It was an exciting moment in those days to be a part of the television or radio audience on any of the children’s programmes at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).
It was also a joy to recognise a schoolmate or family friend in an advertisement on television.
This certainly earned the ‘chosen’ ones some popularity for some time.
Today, these joyful pastimes have been totally effaced by technological advancements that make it easy to create one’s own show, advert or form of entertainment using mobile gadgets and apps.
It does not end there.
Social media makes it possible to share far and wide, with the addiction of likes, followers and shares, completely blinding us to the dangers of sharing private information about the children in our care.
Sharenting
Sharenting is a term derived from the words ‘share’ and ‘parenting’. It describes the practice of parenting that includes sharing the lives of children habitually on the Internet.
Such parents may have a blog where they share information on and about their child, a content creation that mainly features the child’s talent, daily lifestyle or even a family comedy that entertains.
It may be casual, but consistent sharing of personal information about what the child is wearing to an event, eating, learning, where the child is going and achieving, etc.
Whilst most netizens and fans who follow these posts on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and other blogs may find such content interesting and harmless, it is a fact that most of the content is shared without the child’s understanding and consent.
Privacy, protection
It is obvious that many who engage in sharenting do not also consider the child’s privacy and protection issues.
This is important because of the online risks to safety and potential harm that these children are being exposed to. Sharing personal information online can set the child up for cyberbullying, grooming, identity theft, kidnapping and in worse situations, misuse of content.
Some schools and teachers are involved in sharenting too. Some time ago, it was common to find videos of children in public schools being ridiculed for making grammatical errors in English.
Some online networks have also been notorious for sharing senior high school students’ promiscuous behaviour on the pretext of sharing news.
These can have a negative impact on a child’s identity and self-esteem now and even later, when they have reformed and settled down to a more responsible lifestyle.
Because the Internet does not forget, all these materials being shared can be pulled out at any time.
Images of children can be stolen to make negative memes or create fake or false stories that may be unappealing too.
Best intentions
Some parents may be involved in sharenting with the best of intentions.
An important consideration is to really put ourselves in the shoes of the children.
Are we comfortable having them share any kind of photo or video of ours on social media?
How would we feel today as grown men and women if our parents shared our childhood so consistently online?
Young children cannot give consent to what parents share, but these considerations must be carefully made in their best interest and not that of the adults in their lives.
Children should be freed from all potential strings that will make them feel pressured to sustain a certain kind of lifestyle in future because of what the world has been made to believe about them.
Parents should avoid sharing embarrassing images or videos of their children even if they find it so funny (for example, naked or undressed).
There should be personal privacy settings to screen out who can view and who cannot, if possible.
Parents, teachers and other caregivers must remember that their responsibility of protection and ensuring the child’s autonomy stretches into the virtual world, and they cannot be careless about this.
The writer is a Child Development Expert/Fellow at Zero-to-three Academy, USA.
E-mail: nanaesi_19@yahoo.co.uk
