Sharing Photos and Videos of Children on Social Media ("Sharenting")

Question: Is it safe to upload pictures and videos of my children on social media?

Answer: Although it is completely understandable to want to post photos of your children or share their accomplishments with family and friends on social media, it’s important to be mindful about what you are sharing about yourself and your children online. Being able to easily share photos with family and friends, especially those who live far away, can be a great benefit of having access to social media. However, when photos are shared with a public audience, this practice – what some call “sharenting” – can create risks like unwanted contact or exposure to predators online. 

Unfortunately, there is no one right answer when deciding whether to post photos or videos of your child online. Every parent will need to consider their motivations for posting and the potential risks to help them make a decision that best works for their family and meets their child’s current and future needs. There are also strategies you can use to make it safer and more positive for your kids, such as managing your privacy settings, being intentional about the photos you choose to share, and involving your child in this decision-making process. We dive more into those strategies below.

Why do parents share photos online? 

If you like to share photos of your family online, you’re not alone! There are many reasons why you may want to share content about your family, including children. Maybe you want to share photos with family and friends who you don’t see often. Maybe you’re a proud parent who wants to share your child’s accomplishments. Maybe it is an opportunity for you to document their growth and changes over time.  

Research on parents’ motivations and attitudes towards sharenting found that there are many reasons parents post photos of their child online, including emotional satisfaction, memory preservation, social validation, financial incentives, or to shape the public’s impression of themselves and their family.  
 
Regardless of your motivation, sharing content of your family online isn’t inherently bad or wrong, but it does require some thoughtful consideration about how to best protect your child while experiencing these benefits. 

A Balancing Act 

One challenge of sharing your family’s life online is balancing the benefits you receive from sharing content with the current and future needs of your children. For example, sometimes your motivations for sharing can conflict with concerns about your child’s autonomy or privacy, which can create tension between you and your children as they grow older.  

A series of interviews with parent bloggers found that many parents struggle to navigate their own self-expression when writing about their lives, including their children. Many parents shared that they try to draw a line between sharing their emotional experiences as parents versus writing about their children, but those boundaries can sometimes blur. Some parents noted that they felt more comfortable sharing about their children when they were infants or toddlers. However, as their children grew older and began to ask questions about what was being posted, parents started to reconsider how much they share online. 

A review of many different studies found that parents must balance multiple considerations when deciding what to share, such as their own self-expression, protecting their child’s identity, and what impact it will have on their child in the future. Despite all these considerations, many parents couldn’t articulate clear ethical rules of thumb that they follow when deciding what and when to post.  

The same review also found that children often do not treat “sharenting” the same way they treat peer sharing and tend to judge their parents’ posts more harshly. This echoes a 2017 survey, which found that although teens know there are a variety of reasons why their parents might share about them online (like seeking advice, staying connected, and saving memories), they largely disapprove of their parents sharing their information. Many teens feel unsure or uncomfortable, particularly when the content focuses on appearances or feels publicly embarrassing. Teens tend to feel more positive when posts are about preserving meaningful moments, but their reactions can depend on their own habits and comfort with sharing online. These findings suggest how important it is to ask kids and teens’ permission before sharing their images or experiences online.  

The designs and settings of social media platforms make navigating this tension even more difficult. Aspects like post length, options to save/bookmark posts, what types of media can be posted, and how and with whom these are shared can all affect whether and how parents share photos of children on each platform. These and other platform-specific characteristics, such as algorithm recommendations or the option to post anonymously, can also change the risks posed by “sharenting”.  

What are the risks of “sharenting”? 

Unfortunately, there are potential risks of sharing photos and videos of your children online, especially if the content is publicly accessible. This review found that risks to children’s privacy and safety include unintentionally sharing sensitive details like location or daily routines. Relatedly, research shows that “sharenting” is linked to cyberbullying and identity theft, and can even impact future job prospects. 

Additionally, a New York Times article described how parents posting videos on YouTube of their child participating in typical family activities like swimming, dancing, or gymnastics could attract child predators who comment and share the link with other predators. In addition, the article explained that YouTube’s recommendation algorithm would push these videos to users who had watched adult or suggestive content. Since the publication of this article, YouTube has changed its Child Safety Policy to say that videos containing children may have some features disabled, such as comments, live chat, and recommending the video to others.   

Other risks to sharing photos online can include unknowingly sharing information about your child’s location, digital privacy risks (like marketers gathering information about your child from a young age), and even psychological safety concerns if a parent is sharing too much of the child online without the child’s consent. Privacy is important to children as they grow up; it gives them a sense of being able to try things without being judged, freedom to make mistakes without ridicule, and the opportunity to build a sense of self. If their everyday moments (particularly embarrassing ones) are posted for others to see, it could increase their self-consciousness or normalize the idea of performing for an online audience.  

In addition to sharing your child’s content to your own social media pages, some parents may choose to manage a social media account for their child. This introduces additional risks. For example, a recent New York Times investigation examined Instagram accounts run by parents on behalf of their daughters with the goal of building fame, attracting sponsorships, and earning money for their child. The investigators found that these types of accounts often attract large numbers of adult male followers, including sexual predators who post inappropriate comments and share these posts on other platforms. For more information about children as social media “influencers”, review this past portal response. 

The rise in popularity of generative AI also creates new risks for children online. AI can produce new content, such as images, videos, audio, and text that are based on prompts users give it, including modifying existing photos or videos. This means others can take the photos or videos you’ve posted of your family online and digitally alter them to look like something they’re not. This includes people who know you or your kids, such as their peers at school, but also strangers. One of the most serious and concerning examples of this is when AI is used to exploit minors by generating manipulated images of real children that portray them as nude or in sexually explicit or harmful situations. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has a Cyber Tipline where you can report any child sexual exploitation to law enforcement.  

Tips for Parents 

It is normal for parents to want to share about their children and family, and while sharing online can never be 100% safe, there are steps you can take to support your child’s safety, trust, and well-being. Including your child in the decision-making process is a great way to start, especially as they get older and develop their own preferences (which may change over time!) In the meantime, using the tips and strategies described below can help. 

Before you post, experts suggest asking yourself these 5 questions about the content you plan to share:  

1. Why are you sharing it? 
2. Would you want someone to share it about you? 
3. Could your child be embarrassed by it, now or in the future? 
4. Is there anyone in the universe who shouldn’t see this about your child, now or at any point in the future? 
5. Is this something you want to be part of your child’s digital footprint? 

Similarly, UNICEF offers expert tips and considerations on sharing content more safely, including: 

• Use it as a teaching moment: When considering whether to post, use this as a valuable opportunity to teach children and model the idea of consent. Show them that you value privacy, and help them understand the importance of privacy for themselves, their peers, and you.  
• Consider the audience: When you do post content with your child, consider: What are the privacy settings on your social media profiles? Is the post publicly viewable? How well do you know the people you have added as friends or followers? How much information are you sharing? Does that include embarrassing content, or information about locations or identifiable features like school logos? These types of details can increase or decrease the risks associated with sharing photos of your child.  
• Go easy on yourself: If you have already posted a lot about your children or are doubting yourself, take a deep breath! Most parents do not overshare out of malice. It is easy to get caught up in posting online with good intentions. A good first step is to start looking at what was shared in the past and consider deleting what you can. As your child gets older, you can invite them to join you in this process and periodically remove posts from your social media that are no longer relevant. 

Researchers also suggest these practical strategies when taking photos/videos and posting content: 

• Photograph/video your child from a distance or while they’re looking away 
• Focus on a body part (e.g. just their hand in frame) 
• Cover their face with an emoji or blur their face 
• Remove recognizable content from the photo (e.g. a school name or logo) 

You might also consider using these strategies within different apps or platforms that can help increase privacy and safety: 

• Curate your friends list to only those you know and trust 
• Set the individual post to only be shared with a select group of people (such as your “close friends” on Instagram stories) 
• Keep your profile fully private and remove any personally identifiable information  
• Restrict who can send you friend requests, messages, or tag you in content 
• Turn off location sharing and remove geotags from posts  

These practices to limit exposure can help protect your children’s privacy, but they may also draw criticism or questions from family members or other acquaintances who do not understand your decision. It may be helpful to anticipate these conversations and plan how you might respond. Be sure to clearly articulate your expectations around privacy and sharing of photos online with your family and friends. If you have specific expectations about how and what they can share about your child, tell them. Having these conversations early and often can help you to maintain boundaries and set expectations that protect your child’s privacy.   

References 

• Blum-Ross, A., & Livingstone, S.. (2017). “Sharenting,” parent blogging, and the boundaries of the digital self. Popular Communication, 15(2), 110–125.   
• Livingstone, S., & Helsper, E.. (2010). Balancing opportunities and risks in teenagers’ use of the internet: the role of online skills and internet self-efficacy. New Media & Society, 12(2), 309–329.   
• Motevalli, S., Razak, R. A., Bailey, R. P., Madihie, A. B., Mehdinezhadnouri, K., & Pan, Y. (2025). Parents' Sharenting Behaviours: A Systematic Review of Motivations, Attitudes, Perceptions, and Impression Management Perspectives. F1000Research, 14, 448.   
• National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. (n.d.) Generative AI.   
• “Roth, S., Ugwudike, P., Lavorgna, A., Middleton, S. E., Djohari, N., Tartari, M., & Mandal, A.. (2024). Sharenting Risks and Harms: A Criminological Perspective. In Palgrave Studies in Cyberpsychology (pp. 83–96). Palgrave Studies in Cyberpsychology.   
• Tosuntaş, Şule Betül, & Griffiths, M. D. (2024). Sharenting: A systematic review of the empirical literature. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 16(3), 525–562.   
• Verswijvel, K., Walrave, M., Hardies, K., & Heirman, W. (2019). Sharenting, is it a good or a bad thing? Understanding how adolescents think and feel about sharenting on social network sites. Children and Youth Services Review, 104, 104401.   
• Wachs, S., Mazzone, A., Milosevic, T., Wright, M. F., Blaya, C., Gamez-Guadix, M., & Norman, J. O. H. (2021). Online correlates of cyberhate involvement among young people from ten European countries: An application of the routine activity and problem behaviour theory. Computers in Human Behavior,123, 106872.   
• Walrave, M., Robbé, S., Staes, L., & Hallam, L.. (2023). Mindful sharenting: how millennial parents balance between sharing and protecting. Frontiers in Psychology, 14.    

Age: 0-17 

Topics: Sharenting, sharing photos on social media, posting on social media, consent, risks of sharing kids online, benefits of posting about kids online, minor, sharing personal information 

Role: Parent/Caregiver