Today’s children are growing up with digital footprints that began before they could walk or talk. From baby’s first bath to the first day of kindergarten, posting online feels like a way to share love and pride, but experts warn that this culture of constant sharing, known as “sharenting,” may have lasting effects on children’s safety, privacy, and sense of autonomy.

According to a 2024 report by Security.org, 77% of U.S. parents have shared photos, stories, or videos of their children on social media. Nearly one in three parents (29%) say they never ask their child for permission before posting, and 80% admit they have followers they’ve never met in person.

In a separate peer-reviewed study published in The Italian Journal of Pediatrics (Conti et al., 2024), 75% of parents reported sharing images or information about their children online , with 31% beginning within the first six months of their child’s life. Alarmingly, 93% said they were unaware of privacy risks or existing laws that protect children’s digital rights.

These statistics reveal how embedded sharenting has become in modern parenting, and how few parents fully grasp the long-term implications.

What Happens to Those Photos?

Once shared online, a child’s image can travel far beyond the intended audience. A 2023 study on digital exploitation warned that photos of children, even innocent family snapshots, are increasingly being scraped and reposted on websites frequented by predators.

Security experts also caution that children’s personal details, such as names, birthdays, and school identifiers, can contribute to identity theft. The Identity Theft Resource Center estimates that roughly 14% of U.S. parents say their child’s personal data has been compromised, often linked to social media exposure.

“Most parents think they’re just sharing a memory,” says digital privacy researcher Stacey Steinberg, author of Growing Up Shared. “But each post creates a data trail, and kids inherit that trail before they even understand what privacy means.”

Emotional and Developmental Impacts

The psychological effects of oversharing are becoming increasingly evident as children of the digital age grow older. Teenagers raised in highly public online environments often report feelings of embarrassment, exposure, or resentment toward their parents for posting without consent.

A 2022 study in Frontiers in Education found that adolescents were comfortable with positive or milestone posts but objected strongly when parents shared content they perceived as embarrassing or overly personal. Researchers describe this negotiation between parent and child as a new form of digital boundary-setting, one many families are still learning to navigate.

“When children feel they have no control over their public image, it can erode trust,” notes the UNICEF Parenting Initiative in its global advisory on sharenting. “Parents should aim to model respectful digital behavior from the start.”

Legal Protections Are Beginning to Emerge

Until recently, there were few laws addressing how children featured in social media content are protected. That’s starting to change.

Illinois became the first U.S. state to pass a "child influencer" law in 2023, amending its Child Labor Law to require parents or guardians to set aside a portion of their earnings from monetized content featuring minors into a trust account for the child's future. This law, which went into effect on July 1, 2024, allows children to take legal action against adults who fail to provide compensation for their contributions to online content.
California enacted two laws in 2024, effective January 1, 2025, to protect child content creators: the Child Content Creator Rights Act and the expansion of Coogan Law. The new law requires creators who feature minors in at least 30% of their compensated content to set aside 65% of the minor's gross earnings into a trust fund, while extending the original Coogan Law to digital media, requiring 15% of earnings to be placed in a trust, regardless of a contract. These laws provide crucial financial protections for child influencers and young performers in online content.
Minnesota enacted a law in 2024, which goes into effect on July 1, 2025, requiring parents to set aside a portion of their earnings from online content featuring their children into a trust account, which becomes available to the child at age 18. The law also includes a provision for minor content creators to request the removal of content they appear in and mandates record-keeping for creators.
Utah enacted legislation in 2025 to protect children featured in social media content, particularly children of influencers, by requiring parents to establish financial protections for their child's likeness and participation in monetized content. The law, effective March 1, 2025, also provides children with the right to have embarrassing or harmful content featuring them removed once they reach adulthood.
France's Law No. 2024-120 explicitly introduces children's image rights into the Civil Code, addressing the intensified practice of sharenting. Under this law, parents can face significant fines and legal penalties for posting images of their children without consent, as this infringes upon the child's right to privacy and likeness. The law emphasizes that children's image rights are a priority, and while parents are the primary custodians of these rights, they do not have absolute power over their children's image

While these laws primarily focus on influencer families, experts say they highlight a growing recognition that children deserve ownership of their digital identities.

The Slippery Line Between Sharing and Oversharing

Most parents post out of pride, connection, or community — not carelessness. But as researchers from the International Journal of Pediatrics note, what starts as innocent sharing can “normalize continuous exposure,” leaving children vulnerable to emotional and physical risks.

A 2023 global survey cited by PMC found that 86.9% of respondents considered excessive sharing of children’s photos or videos a form of “digital neglect” — reflecting rising public concern about how far is too far.

How to Share Safely (Without Oversharing)

Experts recommend a few key strategies to balance sharing memories with protecting privacy:

Ask for consent early: Even young children can be included in the decision to post.
Avoid identifying details: Don’t share school names, addresses, or real-time locations.
Use private accounts or family groups: Limit visibility to trusted contacts.
Skip sensitive content: Avoid anything that could embarrass your child later.
Audit old posts: Review and remove outdated or overly revealing images.

The goal isn’t to stop parents from sharing altogether — it’s to share thoughtfully, respecting children’s right to shape their own digital story.

As social media continues to shape modern family life, parents are becoming the first curators of their children’s online identities. But with that power comes responsibility. Every post builds a narrative, one that children will inherit long before they can rewrite it.

Because sometimes, the best way to protect a child’s future is to let them decide what parts of their past should be public.

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Yvon Lux is the editor of her Apple News channel covering lifestyle news and current events. Her “blogazine” celebrates sisterhood and empowers women by focusing on women’s health, travel, lifestyle, and entrepreneurial news while also sharing the most coveted beauty news and style stories.

When she’s not busy writing about impactful brands, standout products, and lifestyle news, she and her husband can be found snuggling with their emotionally needy, perpetually sleepy golden retriever, or she’s chipping away at her Juris Doctor. Connect with her on Instagram and subscribe to her Apple News channel.