Are children paying the price for influencer fame?

Despite ethical concerns, motherhood influencers use children’s images to monetize Instagram content, exposing gaps in privacy safeguards and sparking debates on online safety.

Sharing images of children on social media: British motherhood influencers and the privacy paradox. Image Credit: fizkes / Shutterstock

In a recent article in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers investigated the extent to which popular British motherhood influencers infringe on their children’s privacy through the images they post online.
Their findings indicate that influencers trust the safety measures taken by social media platforms, though this trust may stem from a lack of direct negative experiences. The study also highlights the complexity of the privacy paradox, suggesting it is context-dependent.

Background

Over the past two decades, the increasing popularity of social media influencers has raised privacy concerns, especially when they share images of children.

Motherhood influencers, who share posts about parenting and often promote products, have been criticized for sharing private content about their children. This practice, called “sharenting,” raises ethical issues since children cannot meaningfully consent to sharing their images online.

Concerns include the misuse of children’s images, potential privacy violations, and long-term psychological impacts as these children gain unwanted online attention. Some worry that commercial interests often overshadow privacy concerns. In France, a law now allows children to request the removal of such content to protect their privacy.

Despite these concerns, limited research has systematically examined actual sharenting practices, how often motherhood influencers post content featuring their children, or how this behavior relates to potential privacy worries.

Earlier studies mostly rely on self-reported data, which often fails to capture actual behaviors. This has fueled debates around the “privacy paradox,” where intentions to protect privacy do not match behaviors. The current study addresses these gaps by analyzing both observed behaviors and self-reported perceptions.

About the study

This study employed a mixed-method approach, combining content analysis with an online survey, to explore the privacy paradox among motherhood influencers in the United Kingdom.

First, content analysis was conducted on 5,253 Instagram posts from 10 popular British motherhood influencers, spanning from August 2020 to July 2021. The influencers were selected based on their high follower count (over 10,000) and active engagement on Instagram.

A coding book was developed to categorize the content, focusing on variables such as the presence of children’s images, perceived age, and the type of personal data shared. High inter-coder reliability (Cohen’s kappa = 0.99) was achieved.

Following the content analysis, an online survey was distributed to the same influencers to capture their perceptions of sharenting behavior and privacy concerns. The survey measured perceived sharenting behavior, willingness to share information, and situational privacy concerns.

Ethical approval was obtained for both phases of the study, ensuring compliance with institutional guidelines.

Findings

The content analysis revealed that 74.6% of the posts featured children, and 46% were sponsored content. Most images (81.8%) were perceived as natural, while only a small percentage appeared choreographed or unclear. All influencers shared images of their children, ranging from 43% to 99% of their posts. A total of 68.9% of images showed the child’s full face, raising potential privacy concerns.

37.6% of the posts shared personal data, including children’s names, ages, and locations. Although the majority of posts did not feature children in embarrassing or exposed situations, 9.85% showed children in potentially embarrassing situations, and 11.2% included intimate content, such as emotions, illness, or tantrums.

The survey findings indicated a disconnect between influencers’ reported privacy concerns and their actual sharenting behavior. However, the study suggests that this gap may not stem from unawareness but from strategic decisions to share content. Influencers expressed confidence in social media platforms’ safety features and did not perceive sharing their children’s images as a threat.

Conclusions

This study explored how motherhood influencers in the United Kingdom share private information about their children on Instagram and how this aligns with their perceptions of privacy. Researchers analyzed over 5,000 posts and surveyed influencers to understand their sharenting behaviors and views on online privacy.

Despite the privacy risks involved in sharing the names and faces of children online, the study revealed that influencers often see sharenting as a deliberate, strategic activity to enhance their brand. Notably, influencers did not find their actions in conflict with their stated privacy concerns, suggesting that the privacy paradox might not be as universally applicable as previously thought.

Influencers often use children’s images for financial gain, which raises ethical concerns as children cannot consent. The study emphasizes that even without explicit “embarrassing” content, the frequent use of children in sponsored posts poses ethical dilemmas. It advocates for stricter regulations to protect children’s privacy, such as limiting or banning the use of children’s images in influencer content.

Future research should explore sharenting practices among smaller influencers, different cultural contexts, and across other platforms like TikTok. The study also notes limitations, including its focus on Instagram posts, the small sample size, and the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on content sharing behavior.