Examining the Phenomenon of Sharenting

Abstract

TERM PAPER Sharenting was coined by adding the terms "parenting" and "sharing" to describe parents' tendency to post about their children on social media apps (Sharenting, n.d). Technological advances increased the availability of social media networking apps and made creating profiles easier. As a result, sharenting has become more prevalent among parents. Exploring this phenomenon is really complicated and the most controversial implication is the privacy intrusion children are subjected to. This implication has been thoroughly explored in research, and although it is interesting it is beyond the scope of this paper. Instead, the literature review will analyze the motive of sharenting, and multiple factors that affect it (Holiday et.al., 2020; Briazu et.al., 2021). The notable implications of sharenting include the pressing issue of the privacy paradox, and the distortion of children’s digital representations (Fox et.al., 2022; Ouvrein & Verswijvel, 2019). Sharenting is controversial but current research indicates that boundary negotiation between children and parents is necessary to avoid frustrations (Lipu & Siibak, 2019).