CHILDREN'S RIGHTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE: SHARENTING AS A LEGAL AND PEDAGOGICAL CHALLENGE

Abstract

The digital age brings numerous challenges for parenting and childhood. One of these challenges is sharenting. The theoretical foundations of this study, approached interdisciplinarily, combine legal and pedagogical insights and principles. This study, which used a combined quantitative and qualitative research design, was part of a broader research into the trend of parents sharing images, videos, and information about their children on social media. The aim of the study was to explore the perspective of Slovenian parents on sharenting and its specific characteristics. For the analysis of the collected data, descriptive and causal-nonexperimental methods were used, including thematic content analysis of respondents’ answers. The data required for the research were collected via an online questionnaire in 2023, based on a sample of 211 Slovenian parents, anonymously and on a voluntary basis, in compliance with the ethical code. The findings of the study indicate that most parents in Slovenia are unaware of the long-term privacy impacts of sharenting and mostly do not seek their children's consent for posts. Mothers are more active than fathers, and education is not a decisive factor in sharing, highlighting the need for parental digital privacy education.