Parenting in the Digital Age: Motives for Sharenting and the Consequences for Children and Adolescents

Parenting is a life-changing experience. The joy, but also insecurities, and challenges that especially young parents go through are increasingly also shared on social media. Through posting videos and images portraying their daily life and associated parental issues, parents are likely to divulge their child’s personal information and therefore engage in sharenting. In this chapter current knowledge of parents’ sharenting motives is reviewed, while considering children’s developmental path and family environment. First, the interplay between parenting, family dynamics, and sharenting are explored by introducing an extended model of parenting determinants. Second, sharenting motives and potential consequences are discussed. Next, the chapter focuses on sharenting throughout childhood and when children become active on social media themselves, and how sharenting plays a role in the parent-child relationship.