Abstract: Submission #209

Abstract Parents frequently post details about their children on social media. The risk here is that material shared on social media has the potential to spread quickly (intentionally or unintentionally) and occasionally end up in the hands of child predators who could use it to carry out some malign acts against the child. Little research has however been conducted to explore the extent to which sharenting can negatively impact the lives of children. The study thus explores the impact sharenting through social media has on the rights and protection of children in the digital era since South Africa's Constitution protects children's rights with the goal of guaranteeing all children various rights, including a right to privacy and a right of safety from danger. The study adopted the Desk Research method whereby qualitative data were collected using internet google search. The target materials were journal articles, legislation, cases, books, and gazette documents. Reviewing these materials found that parents seldom consider the best interests of the child or seek their consents when posting and sharing information about them on social media; and the law does not adequately protect children from sharenting especially in South Africa; whereby lessons needed to be learnt from certain legislations across the globe such as from the United States of America and European Union. The study is relevant to diverse stakeholders including policy makers, civil/social workers, parents, law courts/firms, the academia and those agencies or individuals that work directly or indirectly with the child or about child protection. However, the study had its limitations. It only used secondary data - information not collected from the target population such as the parents.
Key Concepts: Sharenting, Social Media, Right, Child Protection