Children’s privacy on social media

With the emergence of social media tools, people have the opportunity to find friends they have not seen for a long time, receive news from them through many channels, follow them and share about themselves. It can be clearly seen that photo sharing has especially increased.

Sharing photos on social media has continued not only with adults sharing their own photos, but also with parents sharing their children’s photos intensively in recent years. Sharing the growth processes of children step by step, starting from their birth, on social media like an album has brought to mind the question of how much it affects children’s privacy rights. According to a study conducted in 2012, 98% of mothers and 89% of fathers upload their children’s photos to the Facebook platform. The rapidly increasing act of sharing photos of parents has given rise to the concept of “Sharenting”. The concept of sharing was first introduced “Over-sharenting” It is stated that it was used in 2012.

Additionally, the word “Over-sharenting” was defined by the Collins Dictionary in 2015 as parents sharing regularly and in detail about their children on their social media accounts. The word used was created by combining the words share and parenting. There is no Turkish equivalent of the word used yet.

Parents’ desire to be accepted and satisfied through social networks, while sometimes intruding into their children’s private space, can bring about many problems for children in the future. In particular, if a child observes that his/her parents constantly take photographs of him/her and share them through social networks, this will cause him to perceive the concept of privacy differently and his privacy awareness will not develop sufficiently. In addition, the child will have a digital identity without his/her consent. If the shared content is such that children may feel embarrassed in the future, it can be used by their circle of friends for purposes such as mocking and humiliating them. This situation can negatively affect the child’s psycho-social development.

Recently, with the introduction of social distance between people due to the Coronavirus (Covid19) epidemic, the time spent in the digital environment has increased even more. This increase in time spent in the digital environment has also manifested itself in terms of content sharing. People tend to share more than usual on social networks about their family environment and their children’s experiences. The important point to consider when sharing is to know what the child thinks about the child’s content before sharing it. On the family day of the “SciFest” science fair held in Sweden in March, children were given various questions to find out what they thought about their parents sharing about themselves. survey questions directed. Young children as young as 4 years old were also included in the study. The questions were presented by two psychologist researchers, supported by visuals about parents’ different sharing styles. As a result of the analysis, it was seen that children approached the posts with a negative perspective. Children do not like their photos being taken and shared by their parents without their permission, and they want their parents to ask for their permission, regardless of their age. In other words, contrary to what the parents thought, the children expressed that they were disturbed by this situation. Considering that 4-year-old children were included in the questions posed with visual support, the answers clearly show that parents should consult their children before sharing. In addition, they need to consider whether it will create any problems in the future in the children’s lives.

Sharing of children without their consent can both violate children’s privacy and negatively affect their psychology. Shares made with good intentions often create digital footprints of children at a young age, and digital footprints can cause privacy and rights violations. Considering that young children do not have sufficient awareness about rights and privacy, parents are obliged to take precautions and act more thoughtfully to protect their children’s privacy. The possibility that photos shared in any media can be taken and used elsewhere for malicious purposes should never be ignored. Especially considering the prevalence of pedophilia, it is clear that private photographs of children should not be shared in public media. In Australia’s security department According to the results of the research It has also been stated that on a site with at least 45 million images, half of the published content is obtained directly from social media.

Considering the general situation, social media channels provide a lot of data for malicious people. Every citizen, including parents, sometimes does not think about the possibility of the content they share having a negative reaction, and sometimes ignores it. The possibility of shared content reaching disturbing levels does not only occur when parents share photos of their children. Likewise, taking photos, videos and audio recordings of students in schools and sharing them on social media will bring various problems. In order to prevent this situation, with the circular published by the Ministry of Education in 2017, students’ photos, videos, etc. It has been stated that if the contents are shared illegally on the internet or social media platforms, the necessary legal proceedings will be initiated. It is of great importance that other adults, especially parents, show sensitivity and pay attention to protecting the rights and privacy of children, who are more vulnerable than adults.

5 Things Parents Should Consider Before Sharing

1. Shared content should not violate privacy!

Before sharing about their children, parents should take into account how the content uploaded to the digital environment may make the child feel in the future. Content that seems innocent to parents can be embarrassing for children. Sharing a photo that children may be embarrassed about in the digital environment will both risk their privacy and cause them discomfort.

2. Some content should remain private!

Some parents may like to share content belonging to themselves or their children indiscriminately. However, in the future, children may not agree with their parents and may prefer to keep some content private to them.

3. Content that may lead to abuse should not be shared!

It must be determined who can view the shared content, and care must be taken not to share photographs containing children’s personal information. It should not be forgotten that information shared about children may be used for abuse by malicious people.

4. Privacy should not be violated!

Children who observe their parents constantly posting about themselves on social media may perceive the concepts of privacy and confidentiality differently and ignore their importance. In order to raise privacy awareness, parents must first be role models.

5. Traces left by children in the digital environment should not be allowed to cause problems in the future!

If it is thought that the content shared about the child may be problematic for others to see at any time, it should never be shared. All kinds of information about people can be accessed on the internet. (The internet is the place for all information about people, including university and job applications.) Any shared content may result in negative feedback for children in the future.

As a result, the importance parents attach to privacy and confidentiality issues will greatly affect the sensitivity their children will show on these issues in the future. It is of great importance for parents to take precautions to protect their children’s privacy and to be role models for their children in order to help children gain privacy awareness at an early age.

Written by: Psychologist Gülşah AKSAKALLI