Sharenting: The dangers of posting your child online

Experts are warning parents of the dangers of posting photos of their children online.

So-called “Sharenting” leads to an increased risk of children being harassed, cyber-bullied and having their identities stolen in later life, with many images falling into the hands of predators, academics from Strathclyde University warn.

Documenting a child’s special moments on social media – whether that be their first steps or first day at school – has become commonplace in our society as a fun way to connect with friends and family.

But research shows sharing too much about our children online can cause them serious long-term harm and throw the door wide open to fraudsters.

Future identity theft risk

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Chelsea Jarvie is a cyber security expert at the University of Strathclyde and runs workshops for parents on how to share safely.

She told STV News: “It’s not about not posting – it’s 2025, people post on social media all the time.

“It’s about how we filter out some of that security information and the things that could be used for identity theft in the future to make those posts more secure and pose less of a risk in the future to children.

“So, a birth announcement will have the child’s full name, their date of birth, and sometimes their place of birth. That’s quite sensitive information about somebody’s identity. Maybe even their mother’s maiden name.

“These sorts of questions that we get asked throughout our online accounts for keeping those accounts secure.

“We leak out so much information, and that birth post is the start, and it accumulates to first holidays, first pets, maybe where the child went to primary school or high school.

“So there’s a lot of information that you can piece together about somebody throughout their life when you look at the posts over the years.”

Barclays Bank predicts that by the end of this decade, two-thirds of identity theft will be related to sharenting.

But there are serious safeguarding risks too – one survey found 73% of parents admitted strangers view posts about their children.

And around half of the images found on child abuse forums originate from social media platforms.

Posting too much about your child online can expose them to greater security and safety risks Adobe Stock

Chelsea added: “There are a lot of issues around exposure to predators, and we’ve seen with AI that innocent photos of children can be generated into explicit images of children – and I think that’s really distressing.

“There was also a survey done recently in Australia of parents who regularly post on social media.

“Around 7% had been approached directly and asked to share explicit images of their children, and some of them were asked if they would accept money for this.”

By the age of five, the average child already has more than 1,500 images of themselves online – content that will likely exist decades from now.

“There are consent issues, and I think when children start to realise the permanence and the vastness of the internet, then that can cause psychological distress,” Chelsea said.

“46% of children who had pictures posted about them online said that they felt anxious and out of control when they realised that the picture had been taken and shared for others to see.

“There’s no parent who’s taking those photos, making the posts, and thinking that maybe in ten years’ time it could cause psychological distress to children.

“There’s also cyberbullying and things if old photos resurface.”

Sharenting: Posting about our children online can expose them to greater risk of harm, experts warn STV News

Workshop sessions aim not only to educate parents and carers but encourage them to reflect on their own social media habits.

Chelsea would like to see this information given to parents as early as possible, or even be placed inside baby boxes.

But for parents who worry they’ve maybe overshared already, the advice is not to panic.

Chelsea said: “But I think there’s a gap here for the information that we post as parents and carers and as families on social media.

“So I think if we get in at the start, when people are having their families, I think that would be a great point.

“There are things that you can do, and removing posts, and it’s not a terrible situation if you’ve already posted, but it’s just having that awareness is really important for going back over old posts, maybe deleting some and working out what you want to post in the future.”