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With the development of digital technologies, sharing images and information about children online has become a widespread social practice. For many parents, it is a natural extension of everyday communication - a way to document family life or to share and celebrate their child’s achievements with relatives and friends.

In response to this phenomenon, a growing body of research indicates that so-called sharenting is associated with a range of risks that extend far beyond traditional notions of privacy. In many cases, the scale of these risks and their potential consequences are not fully understood by parents who share content about their children.

The term “sharenting” is a neologism formed by combining the words *share* and *parenting*. It was first described in 2012 in *The Wall Street Journal* by Steven Leckart, who drew attention to the growing trend of excessive sharing of children-related content on social media.

Never before in history have people, especially children, had their lives documented so precisely and so publicly. Hundreds of photos, videos, and pieces of information are shared in good faith, driven by closeness, pride, and the desire to capture everyday life. Yet today’s Internet does more than simply store data, it actively processes, analyzes, and utilizes it. In this context, a child’s image becomes part of a complex technological ecosystem, where control over its future use is, in practice, limited. Increasingly, research suggests that this is one of the most underestimated phenomena of contemporary digital childhood.

Risks and Consequences of Sharenting

Research on children’s online presence shows that most of them have a digital footprint before their first birthday and in many cases, even before birth. This means that a significant amount of information relevant to their future safety appears online without their knowledge or consent. What are the real risks associated with sharenting?

1. Identity Theft

In popular perception, identity theft is still mainly associated with data breaches or hacking attacks. In reality, however, it increasingly originates from ordinary information shared online, often by unaware parents. A name, surname, date of birth, and place of residence may already be enough to begin constructing someone’s profile.

Experts point out that missing details can easily be filled in using photos or social media posts. Content shared by parents can help determine a child’s home or school location, social status, lifestyle, and daily habits. According to analyses cited by digital safety institutions, successful identity theft often requires nothing more than access to public data and a bit of patience.

In the case of children, the issue is particularly serious. Their data appears online early, often without their knowledge, and may be misused years later, for example, in attempts to take out loans or impersonate them for other purposes. This means that the consequences of digital exposure may be delayed, but remain very real.

2. Deepfakes and Image Manipulation

The development of deepfake technology has fundamentally changed the nature of visual identity. Just a few years ago, manipulating someone’s image or voice required advanced tools and specialized expertise. Today, a few seconds of recording are enough for virtually anyone to create a realistic replica of a person’s voice or appearance. Publicly available photos can be used to generate images that are difficult to distinguish from reality.

A major concern is that the quality of AI-generated content is improving far faster than our ability to detect it. In this context, an image is no longer reliable evidence, and an online presence can be exploited in unpredictable ways. Children’s photos may be used to train AI models or serve as a basis for further manipulation. In practice, this means that any child’s face can be altered, repurposed, and transformed into something that never actually happened.

The data is alarming.

Reports from organizations such as Europol indicate that AI technologies are becoming one of the primary tools used in cybercrime, with their use growing exponentially. Analyses by Sumsub show a sharp increase in the use of deepfakes in fraud in recent years. The problem is no longer theoretical.

Similar conclusions appear in UNICEF reports, which emphasize that children are particularly vulnerable for several reasons. First, they have no control over what content about them is published online. Second, their images are often shared repeatedly and in detail - over years, across different contexts, emotions, and situations. From the perspective of AI systems, this creates a rich dataset for training. In other words, each additional image increases not only a child’s visibility online but also the accuracy of their digital representation. The more data available, the easier it becomes to create a realistic model of their face, expressions, or voice.

Reports from the Internet Watch Foundation (2023/2024) indicate a rapid increase in AI-generated content depicting child abuse. Importantly, in many cases these are no longer images obtained directly, but synthetic images created from existing photos available online. This marks a fundamental shift. Previously, access to real material was required and now, access to an image alone is enough, even if it appears harmless.

According to research by UNICEF, Interpol, and ECPAT, at least 1.2 million children across 11 countries reported that their image had been used to create sexualized deepfakes within a single year.

Moreover, digital safety research shows that the boundary between “harmless” manipulation and serious abuse is extremely thin. The same tools used for filters, animations, or entertainment can also generate violent or sexual content.

In this context, sharenting is no longer just a matter of privacy or image rights. It becomes a driving force behind data ecosystems that, combined with AI development, can be used in ways neither parents nor children are able to foresee.

3. Digital Kidnapping

One of the lesser-known yet equally concerning phenomena associated with sharenting is so-called digital kidnapping, which is the appropriation of a child’s identity online. This does not involve physical abduction or traditional data theft, but rather situations in which a child’s image is taken from the Internet and used to construct a false, alternative narrative of their life.

In practice, this involves strangers downloading children’s photos shared by parents on social media and using them to create new profiles, stories, or even entirely fictional identities. The child becomes a character in someone else’s narrative, part of an emotional or social dynamic played out online. These profiles often appear credible because they are based on real images and content originally shared by parents.

Research on identity appropriation in digital environments shows that such practices are driven by a range of motivations. From the need for social connection and compulsive self-presentation, to financial incentives, manipulation, or criminal intent. In extreme cases, digital kidnapping may be linked to fraud attempts, building false trust, or exploiting emotional responses from other users.

From a psychological perspective, it is important to note that digital kidnapping does not need to be widespread to be harmful. A single case in which a child’s photos begin circulating outside their family context is enough for control over their image to be lost. Unlike traditional data theft, this is not a one-time incident but an ongoing process: once appropriated, an image can be endlessly copied, modified, and reinterpreted.

Research on fake profiles and identity deception in social media shows that creating false identities is now a common feature of platform ecosystems. In the case of children, the consequences are particularly severe, because they lack the tools to recognize or respond when their identity is misused. Moreover, once created, a digital representation can be replicated indefinitely, making its complete removal from the Internet practically impossible.

4. Cyberbullying

Among all risks related to children’s online presence, cyberbullying appears the most intuitive and easiest to imagine. Unlike deepfakes, identity theft, or synthetic manipulation, most parents can readily understand how a child might become a target of ridicule, harassment, or hate online.

This familiarity often makes cyberbullying seem like a more “manageable” risk, but in reality its mechanisms are far more complex than traditional peer conflicts. Research (including UNICEF and EU Kids Online reports) shows that cyberbullying is characterized by persistence, repetition, and the absence of a clear endpoint. Unlike offline violence, it can continue indefinitely and does not end when a child leaves school or changes environment.

In the context of sharenting, an additional and less obvious dimension emerges: persistent content. This refers to situations where materials shared by parents resurface years later in entirely new contexts. Such content may be turned into memes, stripped of its original meaning, shared among peers, or used as a tool for ridicule.

In practice, children entering school or social environments often have no control over a digital footprint created long before their conscious online presence. Another key factor is the difficulty of erasure. Even if a parent deletes a photo, there is no guarantee it has not already been saved, shared, or archived elsewhere. As a result, a child’s digital past may continue to exist alongside their real-life identity.

Studies on children’s and adolescents’ online experiences show that cyberbullying is widespread. Reports indicate that a significant proportion of young people have encountered peer violence online - either directly or indirectly. In some studies, even several dozen percent of teenagers report exposure to such situations, highlighting that this is not a marginal issue but a daily reality of online life.

Cyberbullying is already a common phenomenon with a real impact on children’s everyday functioning. In this context, sharenting becomes an additional risk factor. Content shared by well-meaning but unaware parents can act as digital fuel, amplifying hate and harassment and returning to the child in ways no one initially anticipated.

Digital Responsibility

Given the scale of these phenomena, it is difficult to treat sharenting as merely an innocent act of sharing everyday life or a natural extension of family life into the digital space. Content shared, even with good intentions, enters an environment that is permanent and unpredictable. Once published, materials can be copied, processed, analyzed, and reused in various contexts - from identity theft and image manipulation to cyberbullying and data-driven profiling.

In this sense, sharenting is not only a way of documenting a child’s life but also a process of creating a digital footprint that may function independently of time, intention, and control. Therefore, it is crucial to recognize that every such act leaves a lasting trace - one that carries tangible risks.