Opinions of parents on social media shares about children

Abstract

With the increased use of smart phones, social media apps are now only a touch away. Our country is at the top in the social media usage rankings. Social media apps easily accessed by adults have also increased the frequency of shares posted by parents about their children on their social media accounts. This study aimed to determine the opinions of parents on the shares they post on social media about their children. This research was based on phenomenological research design which is one of the qualitative research approaches. The study was carried out with the participation of 42 parents, including 28 mothers and 14 fathers who have a child aged 0-8. An interview form was developed by the researchers with the aim to obtain data from the study. The findings obtained from the interviews conducted with the participant parents showed that 15 of them do not post social media content about their children, while 27 of them do share social media content about their children. However, of all the participant parents, 20 asserted that posts about children should not be shared on social media, whereas the other 20 stated that such posts should be shared, and 2 of them said that they do not have any opinion. In this context, it can be recommended to train parents about internet literacy.