Children at risk of identity theft and fraud from 'sharenting'

Children are at increased risk of being harassed, cyber-bullied and having their identities stolen in later life by having their photos posted online by parents, according to new research.

So-called “sharenting” – documenting a child’s special moments on social media – has become commonplace, but academics now warn this could come with unexpected risks.

University of Southampton researchers said their findings indicated it increased the risk of children becoming the victims of cyber-crime.

“These findings highlight the serious risks which children can face when photos and videos of them are shared widely on social media,” the NSPCC child safety online policy manager Rani Govender told the BBC.

“Sharing photos or videos of children at scale across the online world can put their safety, privacy and wellbeing at risk,” she said.

The researchers surveyed more than 1,000 parents in the UK, and then conducted follow-up interviews.

They found 45% of parents they spoke to actively put photos of their kids online – while one-in-six reported their child had experienced harms.

One concern is that the media being shared online could reveal details like birthdays, addresses, pet names, and so on – which later in life could increase the risk of identity fraud.

“Sharenting poses a real and present danger to our children,” lead researcher Pamela Ugwudike said.

“By proudly sharing photos and information about children on social media, parents are unwittingly putting them at risk of harm, both online such as cyberbullying, and in the real world – not just now, but also years down the line.”

She warned that, when pictures are shared, strangers could use that information to contact children not only online, but offline too.

Sharenting has proven to be a controversial topic in the past, with some arguing it is an invasion of privacy.

It became a hot topic in 2019 when Gwyneth Paltrow posted a picture with her daughter Apple on Instagram – who then said she didn’t give her mother permission for the image to be shared.

At the time, one of the concerns was parents not being aware of privacy settings – which the researchers reported remains an issue now.

They found parents, carers and relatives – as well as schools – were largely unaware of the way privacy features on social media can be overridden by certain actions.

“This research shows parents overestimate the protection offered by privacy settings,” Ms Govender said.

“Features like tagging and resharing can bypass these protections, allowing content to spread beyond the intended audience even from ‘private’ accounts.”

Meanwhile, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) warned there were other risks linked to sharenting.

“We have seen criminals in the darkest parts of the internet boasting that they can use AI image generators to create life-like nude and sexual imagery of any child they like with only a handful of normal, non-sexual images,” said IWF head Kerry Smith.

She warned AI now poses a whole new range of harms including “the risk of sexual extortion” if the pictures were used to threaten or blackmail a child.

“AI imagery of children can now be so realistic, it is indistinguishable from real imagery,” she said.