Essay On Parental Sharing In Social Media

712 Words2 Pages

Social media is a daily part of most today, which has started a trend of constant oversharing of one’s emotions and lives. Although one may not see this as an issue, since it is one’s decision whether they share private aspects of their lives, the problem arises when children are involved. Parents who overshare on social media tend to depict details of their children’s lives, which shapes their identities and shares details they may not have wanted to be shared. Firstly, in a world where young adults have grown up with social media as a significant part of their lives, it is no surprise that they tend to overshare private details of their own lives, as well as the lives of their children. The issue considered here is not one of the individuals …show more content…

However, sensitive information that may be shared might later embarrass the children as they grow older and realize what is available on the internet. Such events may result in resentment and misunderstandings on both the children and the parents’ sides. According to Steinberg (2017) in “Sharenting: Children’s Privacy in the Age of Social Media,” there have been long-term issues and conflicts regarding parental sharing and whether children have the right to control what is shared about them. Another long-term problem raised by parental sharing is the idea of data collecting. Per “Children’s Privacy in the Big Data Era: Research Opportunities,” “These trends raise serious concerns about digital dossiers that could follow young people into adulthood, affecting their access to education, employment, healthcare, and financial services. Although US privacy law provides some safeguards for children younger than 13 years old online, adolescents are afforded no such protections” (Montgomery, Chester, & Milosevic, 2017, p. …show more content…

Unfortunately, due to the long-term longevity of anything posted in social media, there is no way to create a solution where parents post, but children may choose to get rid of any posts at any time. To solve such issues, the best way is for parents to honestly think twice before posting, and to make sure that any posts are not sharing any sensitive or private information that may hurt the children later. Finally, the current parental oversharing of sensitive information is a trending topic, as it is especially affecting today’s children, adolescents, and young adults. The longevity of anything posted on the internet makes it extremely hard to come up with any solutions to this issue, although it could be avoided if parents were more careful and thoughtful when posting anything regarding their

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