Sharenting trend sparks concern as experts warn of privacy risks and child exploitation
Telegraph | 16 January 2026
Over the past month, a Sector III mom in her 30s shared six separate social media posts of her eight-year-old son. In the snaps, the child plays cricket, sings, makes a greeting card and enjoys a family picnic. A Kankurgachhi mom shared another six posts of her teenage daughter dressed up for a wedding, dancing, enjoying ice cream, and snuggling into a quilt in the peak of winter.
Together, these posts have garnered thousands of likes, leaving the parents delighted, but what they do not realise is the risk involved.
The buzzword in the West today is “sharenting”— a term coined from sharing and parenting, and describes the practice of parents broadcasting large volumes of photos, videos and information about their children on social media. It is born out of pride for the child, and a desire to share the joys of parenting but the habit can lead to privacy concerns and mental health issues for the little ones.
15 minutes of fame
A Bangur Avenue lady, who teaches at a south Calcutta school, says lots of her students have YouTube channels and want to be influencers on social media. “One parent blogs about everything the child does, from waking up in the morning to going to bed at night. Another child has become a fashion blogger, collaborating with kidswear brands for her posts,” she says.
“It is actually parents who are making the kids do these. For some, it is about 15 minutes of fame, while for others it is a means of making money. But they don’t realise the internet is full of paedophiles and that these videos could be a dangerous out in the open,” she adds.
Misuse of pictures
A cyber security expert who works with the government is appalled at the level of personal data shared online, especially in the era of deep fake (highly realistic but fabricated images, audios, and videos created using artificial intelligence to make a person appear to say or do something they never actually did).
“There have been instances where parents shared YouTube videos of their kids, and cyber criminals lifted the child’s voice, manipulated it and made ransom calls to the parents saying they have been kidnapped,” he says. “Parents posted pictures of the child on the first day of his school, and criminals zoomed into the school I-card hanging around his neck, read his address, parents’ phone number and misused the information.”
Aishwariya Rai Bachchan’s minor daughter has been a target of identity theft, too. In 2023, her pictures were morphed by YouTube channels to spread fake news about her health since they knew it would attract huge viewership. Her family had to move court to have them removed. “Criminals can even find out the latitude and longitude where a picture was clicked so don’t give out any information that is more than necessary,” he says.
Abhishek and Aishwariya Rai Bachchan’s minor daughter Aaradhya has been a target of identity theft. In 2023 her pictures were morphed by YouTube channels to spread fake news about her health, since they knew it would attract huge viewership. The family moved court over the issue.
Abhishek and Aishwariya Rai Bachchan’s minor daughter Aaradhya has been a target of identity theft. In 2023 her pictures were morphed by YouTube channels to spread fake news about her health, since they knew it would attract huge viewership. The family moved court over the issue.
Another cyber expert reasons that since these days our face is the password for our phones and gadgets, by flaunting close-ups, people are in fact sharing their passwords with strangers. “And this can easily be misused,” adds Sandeep Sengupta, founder of the Indian School of Ethical Hacking that has its office in Sector V.
He advises that parents click the “share with friends” option when sharing kids’ posts so they do not get shared with strangers. “The problem is that many want to be influencers and work hard to make these pictures go viral. Nonetheless, if a picture is misused, report immediately to the social media platform. They are strict about minors’ issues, and action will be taken,” Sengupta says. “Also, before selling or giving away your old phones, do a factory reset. Otherwise, even if you delete the pictures, they can be retrieved.”
The price of likes
In 2016, there were widespread reports about an 18-year-old Austrian girl suing her parents for posting embarrassing childhood photos, including those on potty training, without her consent. This story was later debunked as false, but has become a cautionary tale cited by experts who realise that this is indeed a lawsuit waiting to happen.
“A child cannot give consent under the age of 18, so how can parents share something as private as potty training videos with the world without explicit permission? The parents treat their children as dolls and make them do everything for their own pleasure,” says Chirasree Mitra, a psycho-social counsellor and AD Block resident.
“Sharenting is a genuine problem and is deep-rooted. It stems from an aspiration for a celebrity life.
A middle-class mom wants to ape what she sees Kareena Kapoor doing with her kids, without realising that the celebrity life isn’t her reality. “And the minute you move away from the reality axis, you invite mental health issues,” Mitra says. “Also, in case pictures of celebrity children get misused, they have the power, money and connections to take action, but commoners cannot do that.”
If you share so many videos, you are setting up your child to be dependent on others’ approval for his happiness. “It’s an addiction. After getting ‘likes’ for one picture, the kids crave for more and feel sad if one post doesn’t do as well. In a child’s formative years, parents should work on making them confident, not adding unnecessary pressure,” says Mitra, adding that the practice of sharing kids’ performance videos has stemmed from kids’ reality shows.
“Previously, kids would perform at para functions, get applause and feel encouraged. But the minute they have to compete, that too on TV, the pressure : enjoyment ratio shoots off the charts. But parents force them into these, and share their videos indiscriminately as they think the child’s success is their success,” she notes.
Another concern is trolling. This is when miscreants deliberately post inflammatory messages in response to a social media post to provoke outrage. Mitra points out that celebs have social media managers to handle trolling, but still many get affected and are in therapy. “If you cannot handle criticism with maturity and humour, it can crush you. When seasoned, eminent personalities fall victim to this, is it right to expose children to it? Are kids explained the price of being a public figure before their videos are released on YouTube? Hardly! It’s just herd mentality where parents do it because everyone else is doing it. And the result is that our clinics are jammed.”
Maitree Bhattacharya, psychology teacher at Sri Aurobindo Institute of Education, isn’t against parents sharing posts of children when they are spontaneously and happily engaged in something, and being themselves. “But kids shouldn’t be used as tools to seek validation. I’ve seen parents rewarding kids for adopting adult-like mannerisms and fashion, dancing to item songs, using slang and so on. This is inappropriate and potentially damaging to their emotional development. Monetising content featuring children, pressuring them into joining the show business industry, or pushing them into constant public exposure amounts to exploitation. In many ways, this mirrors child labour and must not be normalised or encouraged,” she says.
The way forward
When Anirban Deb Roy’s baby was born four years ago, he shared her snaps online but covered her face with a smiley. “We wanted to announce that she had arrived but didn’t want the inadvertent “najar” so kept her face hidden,” says the BB Block resident. “Although we did it for cultural reasons, I know it is also a way of protecting kids from the dark underbelly of the digital world,” he says.
Anirban recalls how parents of the last generation would find it amusing to click kids in the full monty and show friends and relatives. “No one thought that the kids might find it embarrassing when they are older. If these kids grow up to become celebrities, such pictures will get them heavily trolled.” Anirban now share his daughter’s pictures selectively. “In fact, she herself knows angles and lights and when she’s happy with a picture, asks for it to be posted. Not the other way round.”