Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
Brand and Media Strategy
Date of Award
5-2020
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Susan E. Waters
Committee Members
Anthony Chase Mitchell, Mildred Frances Perreault
Abstract
Sharenting is a new term used to define the action of parents posting about their children online. Social media provides parents with an easy to use outlet for image distribution to all family and friends that simultaneously archives the images into a digital baby book. While convenient, once publicly posted anyone can gain access to the images of the children. Instagram is a favorable social media channel for sharenting. A popular hashtag on Instagram, #letthembelittle, contains 8 million posts dedicated to child imagery. A set of 300 randomly selected images under the hashtag were coded. Images tended to contain personal information such as the child’s name, age, and location. Communication Privacy Management and Uses and Gratifications theories provided the theoretical frameworks for this study. The results suggested a possibly dangerous pattern of parental oversharing that could negatively impact the child and the child’s safety.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Bare, Christian, "The Undisclosed Dangers of Parental Sharing on Social Media: A Content Analysis of Sharenting Images on Instagram" (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3732. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3732
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.