It is natural for parents to want to show off their kids. It is also reasonable to want to capture and save fond memories as children grow up using a digital storage option. Many parents use the internet to do this, such as free digital albums and archives on Facebook. Unfortunately, the sharenting trend has a dark side. Publicizing personal information and photos of your children online can make your family a target for crimes, including:
Breaches of privacy. Big tech companies such as Meta and Google are constantly collecting information from everything that you post. If information that you publish about your kids falls into the wrong hands – either from a company selling it or a data leak – this can put your child and family at risk of privacy infringements.
Identity theft. While it may seem harmless to post the details of your child's life online, such as the name of his or her school or your child’s full name, this identifying information could put you at risk of identity theft, fraud or blackmail.
Child grooming. Sharenting also poses a risk of your child being targeted by sexual predators online. Posting a photo of your child could spark the interest of a pedophile, for example, who may then engage in stalking, tracking your child’s location tags, private messaging your child, or otherwise grooming him or her for sex crimes.
It's hard for the average person to understand all of the ways that digital information can be used to invade someone's privacy, steal information and identities, track locations, commit sex crimes, and take advantage of victims in other ways. Yet sophisticated hackers are using modern technologies and a wealth of information that’s openly available online to their advantage. This includes targeting kids whose parents overshare on the internet.