Nowadays, many parents share pictures and videos of their children online – in their eyes, they are the cutest little things that ever existed and they want the world to see it.
However, not all parents share such content because of said reason. Some do it for the clout or even financial gain, which was the case with this redditor’s wife. He opened up to the ‘AITAH’ community about having recently found his wife’s secret TikTok account where she would upload videos of their children’s embarrassing moments and even sell them as ‘exclusive content’. The man was seriously concerned, though the mother of his children saw no problem in that and even called him a ‘buzzkill’.
Many influencers and online personas share content featuring their kids, but not all netizens think it’s a good idea
Image credits:DragonImages (Not the actual photo)
This man was seriously concerned after finding wife’s secret TikTok account sharing embarrassing moments from their kids’ lives
Image credits:msvyatkovska (Not the actual photo)
Image credits:Throvaway1036
Many children have a digital footprint even before they are born
With so much of our lives being shared online, it’s no surprise that for many people that includes sharing moments spent with their kids, too. After all, the little ones are usually their parents' biggest treasure, as well as the people they devote most of their time to.
But parents sharing images and videos of their children—often referred to as ‘sharenting’—is a rather controversial topic; while some people see no harm in that, others consider it a violation of the child’s privacy or deem it to be dangerous for other reasons.
According to a piece in Forbes, written by an expert in ethics of future technology, Jessica Baron, some of the biggest risks of sharenting include identity theft, humiliation, privacy violations, discrimination in the future, as well as developmental issues related to autonomy and consent.
Baron suggested that nowadays, a child’s digital footprint often starts even before they are born. Just think about it – pictures of the ultrasound images, videos of expectant parents breaking the good news to their friends and family, gender reveal parties, posts written by proud parents, sharing the exact moment the bundle of joy was born, how big they were, and the full name they were given – that’s quite a lot of information for the world to have basically on day one.
According to a survey from 2010, by the time they hit the two year mark, an overwhelming majority—more than 90%—of babies have an online presence; over 80% of them are already on social media, too.
Image credits:Click_and_Photo (Not the actual photo)
Sharenting can lead to serious detrimental outcomes
A more recent survey—one from 2021—carried out by Security.org found that more than three-in-four parents have shared stories, videos, or images of their children or stepchildren on social media; in these posts, the majority of them (80%) used the kids’ real names.
According to said survey, only a quarter of parents ask for their child’s permission every time before posting their image online; roughly a third of moms and dads don’t bother to do so at all.
What arguably makes things worse is the fact that close to a quarter of social media-using parents have their settings set to public, meaning that even people they don’t personally know can have access to content featuring their children. According to Security.org, it can lead to serious detrimental consequences, such as criminals using sharenting posts for child pornography, digital kidnapping, identity theft, or cyberbullying.
Redditors in the comments under the OP’s post, too, emphasized that his wife uploading videos of their children might lead to certain detrimental outcomes and emphasized that he has to put an end to her actions immediately.
Image credits:Zinkevych_D (Not the actual photo)
The worried dad discussed the situation in the comments
Fellow netizens shared their thoughts, too, some emphasized that she was exploiting the children
