Sharenting as a multifaceted digital practice: Comparing privacy considerations based on parental motivations

Sharenting includes a range of parental practices, from those who carefully manage their children’s digital presence to protect privacy, to others who seek to monetize their children’s images. While some parents limit access through privacy settings or anti-sharenting behaviors, others deliberately seek public visibility to attract brand collaborations. This chapter examines these contrasting practices through two digital ethnography case studies. The first explores everyday parental dilemmas through discussions in a parenting forum, revealing how mothers negotiate boundaries, gatekeep their children’s digital footprints, and manage conflicts with relatives and school personnel. The second analyzes Instagram accounts where parents employ practices such as follow loops, engagement pods, and baby brand rep programs to build audiences and pursue commercial opportunities. Together, these findings illustrate how sharenting can function as both a mundane, relational activity and a commodification of childhood, raising important ethical questions about children’s privacy and their digital representation in digital spaces.