Sharenting

[chill78]

Hi All, new here and was not surewhere to post this topic about sharenting. I hope this is the right place. For anyone not familiar with term "sharenting" it refers to mums and dads that share pictures of their kids on online social networks. My partner and I will be first-time parents in August, and sharenting has already become an issue of contention between us.

To give you some context my partner is an outgoing extrovert, who love being in photographs and shares thousands of pictures of her life on social networks. Being a super proud mum-to-be, she is really excited about the prospect of posting lots of pictures online of our future child. My partner is Indonesian and I have noticed that young Indonesians have really embraced social networking, so her friends, siblings and colleagues all regularly post their daily lives, including their kids, on social networks. By contrast I am an introvert. I have come round to social networking because it helps me keep in touch with friends and family back in NZ, and have even learnt to smile and post a few pictures online, but i am still not completely comfortable with it and many of my kiwi friends still refuse to use social networks because of privacy concerns.

I have brought up my concerns about sharenting with my partner and have sent her newspaper articles on the various dangers of sharenting ? and have also tried to emphasize that putting pictures of a child online takes away that child's right to control their own public image when they are older. However, after several discussion its clear that we just don't see eye-to-eye on this issue. Even when i have proposed compromises, like posting pictures by email to family members or limiting posts to once a month, I can tell she thinks I am raining on her parade. I would appreciate any advice or experiences other parents have had with out they manage their kids public image.

 

[Aquarian]

My husband and I have put a lot of photos of our son on facebook. I don't have an issue with it. Obviously when he's older I would only post photos he likes - but we're a long way from that now.

You might like the timehut app/site - we use it with family who don't use facebook. It's specifically designed for sharing kids photos and you password protect it so only friends/family have access to your pictures.

 

[charade]

Interesting topic...luckily my husband and I are almost on the same page on this. We're okay with Facebook because it's a controlled circle to some extent, though even on Facebook we're thoughtful about what we post. I used to do the online album and email link to family route but I got tired of those sites closing down and asking you to transfer photos and other issues. Also realised that with my family, Facebook ensures I haven't missed anyone. I've realised that with all the publicity on Facebook and privacy, I at least tend to be more conscious about the privacy settings.

I got on Instagram this year and posted a couple of pics of my kids but was creeped out by how many likes those pics got, including from people with dubious sounding nicknames (that included the F-word). My husband and I agreed not to post pics of our kids on sites like Instagram where who you're sharing with cannot be controlled.