Parents’ Shares on Social Networking Sites About their Children: Sharenting

Abstract

Among social media users, parents constitute an active part and they have brought in a new concept,which is called ‘sharenting’ in literature. This study aimed at obtaining the usage frequency and the content ofsocial media sharing, and investigating the information a group of parents shared online about their children, viacontent analysis. The researchers administered an online survey on the usage of Facebook on 219 parents, whomthe researchers had already connected with on Facebook. The parents were also asked for permission to view theirFacebook profiles. 94 parents gave permissions and their profiles were investigated in terms of sharenting for themonths of February, April, and June 2015 (for these 3 months only). Information shared online by parents, showa wide range of variety and diversity. There is also a reflection of social media on sharenting. In terms of contentshare results, parents need to be aware of the information they share online regarding their children.