Sharenting, the practice of oversharing content portraying children on social media platforms, is a growing concern in today’s digital age. Parents in Italy are now being urged to think twice before posting images and videos of their kids online. A draft bill has been presented to the House of Representatives (Camera dei Deputati) to protect children’s privacy online and their right to their own image, mirroring a recent French law. The goal is to open up a debate and address the security risks and psychological impacts associated with sharenting.
Serena Mazzini, a social media strategist and author involved in drafting the bill, emphasizes the need to prioritize privacy over the temptation to go viral. She argues that in a world where every aspect of our lives becomes content, we must be cautious about exposing minors online. Mazzini has been vocal about the risks of oversharing children’s images and videos, especially when parents aim to profit from this content.
The practice of sharenting is prevalent on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, where parents and families share intimate details of their lives. Many family influencer accounts start as amateur endeavors but eventually adopt editorial strategies, using their children’s images as a marketing tool. These accounts seek to capitalize on the industry, which is projected to reach a value of $24 billion by the end of 2024.
Mazzini’s investigation of over 100 accounts in Italy and Portugal revealed that content featuring children can garner up to three times more interactions and views than those without children. Children effectively serve as a means to attract followers and increase commercial value. What makes this issue even more concerning is that children themselves do not consent to their images being shared or exploited. This proposed bill aims to challenge this exploitation and protect children’s rights.
The draft bill, signed by the coalition between Green Europe and Italian Left, does not seek to ban parents from sharing their children’s images online entirely. Instead, it aims to mitigate the risks associated with sharenting. The first article of the bill would require parents to officially declare the use of their children’s images to the Italian Communications Regulatory Authority (AGCOM). If direct profit is gained from these activities, parents would be required to transfer the funds to a bank account in the child’s name, accessible only when they reach 18 years old.
The issue of sharenting extends beyond celebrity and political families. Most parents, inadvertently, share highly sensitive information about their children on social media platforms without considering the associated security risks. Studies have shown that child identity theft is 51 times more common than for adults and that an alarming amount of material on pedophile sites is sourced directly from social media. The risk is further accentuated by the advancements in AI-generated deepfakes, allowing innocent pictures of children to be transformed into explicit content.
Aside from regulating sharenting, legislators are also calling on tech companies to take stricter measures to combat this phenomenon. Stricter guidelines for account holders could help in preventing the oversharing of children’s images and videos.
Another major concern among Italian legislators is the psychological impact sharenting has on children. Generation Alpha, born between 2010 and 2025, will be the first generation to navigate adulthood with a publicly accessible digital library of their childhood. Leah Plunkett, author of “Sharenthood: Why We Should Think Before We Talk About Our Kids Online,” argues that this constant exposure may hinder children’s ability to develop their own identities in the future. Cyberbullying and other mental health issues are unintended consequences of the lack of choice children face in their digital presence.
To address this issue, the proposed bill in Italy aims to grant children the right to be forgotten. Once they turn 14, they would have the option to request “digital oblivion,” allowing them to control their digital footprint and delete any unwanted content.
The draft bill is now in the early stages of the legislative process in Italy, and a similar proposal has been presented by the Five Star Movement Party. It is still too early to determine the final legislation, but this development is a positive step towards better protection of children’s data in Europe. The regulation of sharenting not only safeguards children’s privacy but also raises awareness about the potential risks and impacts of oversharing their images and videos on social media platforms.
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