Are we sharing too much of our children?

By Prof. Dr. Yusniza Kamarulzaman

From a baby’s first smile to the first day of school, parents share life’s happiest moments online every day. Social media has become our modern family album, helping us celebrate milestones and stay connected with loved ones. Yet every post also creates something far more lasting: a child’s digital footprint and, ultimately, their digital reputation. In a world where social media rewards visibility, what attracts attention is not always what best protects a child’s privacy.

Researchers refer to this growing trend as “sharenting”, the practice of parents sharing photographs, videos and personal information about their children online. While sharenting can strengthen relationships and preserve family memories, the real question is not whether parents should share, but how much they share and whether they have considered the long-term impact on their children’s privacy.

Every parent is now a publisher

From a marketing perspective, every social media post tells a story about who we are and what we value. Parents are no different. Every photo shared contributes not only to the family’s online image but also to a child’s digital identity. Years ago, family albums stayed at home. Today, every parent has become a publisher, with an audience that can extend far beyond relatives and friends. Like brands, digital reputations are built one post at a time. Unlike brands, children have no say in the image being created for them.

Although every post may seem innocent at the time, the reality is that once a photograph or personal detail is shared online, parents have very little control over where it may end up. Images can be copied, downloaded, altered or reshared without permission, while a child’s digital identity begins to take shape long before they are old enough to decide how they want to be seen online.

Research has highlighted a number of potential risks associated with excessive sharenting, including permanent digital footprints, identity theft, the misuse of children’s photographs, digital kidnapping, online grooming, and the gradual loss of children’s privacy and autonomy. Every online post becomes part of the digital identity children will one day inherit. It is the children who may one day live with the consequences of an online identity they never chose.

Malaysia is one of Southeast Asia’s most digitally connected societies, where social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp have become an integral part of family life. At the same time, our culture places great value on close family ties, and it is common for grandparents, relatives and friends to share photos of children as a way of expressing love and celebrating special moments. Protecting a child’s privacy is no longer solely the responsibility of parents; it requires everyone around the child to be mindful of what they share online.

With legal protections specifically addressing parental oversharing still relatively limited, parents play the most important role in safeguarding their children’s privacy and ensuring that every post is made with careful thought for its long-term impact.

What encourages parents to protect their children?

Our study involving 161 Malaysian parents offers an encouraging insight: parents are generally willing to adopt safer online sharing habits when they understand the risks and feel empowered to protect their children. As both a marketing researcher and a parent, I believe the question is no longer whether we should share our children’s lives online, but whether we are sharing them wisely.

Those who recognised the seriousness of online privacy threats, believed that their own child could be affected, trusted that safer sharing practices could make a difference, and felt confident using privacy settings were much more likely to think carefully before posting.

Parents were also more likely to adopt safer sharing habits when they did not see these precautions as inconvenient. Most importantly, the study found that parents with a stronger desire to protect their children’s wellbeing were significantly more likely to practise safer sharenting, showing that awareness and motivation can play a powerful role in safeguarding children’s digital privacy.

One finding from our study should give every parent pause. While many parents said they only shared photos or information about their children occasionally, 42.2% still used public privacy settings when posting. This means that even if parents are not frequent posters, their children’s photos and personal details may still be visible to anyone on the internet. In fact, only about one-third of the parents surveyed kept their child-related posts private.

This highlights an important reality: the biggest risk is not always how often we share, but who has access to what we share. A single public post can travel far beyond its intended audience, making it worth taking a moment to check who can actually see our children’s digital lives.

Recognising these growing concerns, UNICEF Malaysia has encouraged parents to think carefully about sharenting, reminding families that every post contributes to a child’s digital identity and that privacy settings alone cannot eliminate all online risks.

A final thought

This is not a call to stop sharing. It is a call to share more thoughtfully. In marketing, we often say that reputation takes years to build but only seconds to damage. The same is true for our children’s digital identity. Every click leaves a trace, and every post shapes the story others may one day tell about them.

While we cannot control everything that happens online, we can decide what we share, who can see it and how we protect the privacy, dignity and future of the people who matter most