From body to emotion,from image to social: children's hierarchy of privacy in sharenting practices

Abstract

Parents routinely share children's information on social media (sharenting), yet little research examines which content types children find most problematic. This mixed-methods study conducted in Turkey surveyed 320 middle school students (ages 10–14) and interviewed 20 participants to investigate how children evaluate sharenting practices. Findings reveal a content-driven privacy hierarchy. Physical privacy violations provoked near-universal rejection (97.8%), followed by emotional exposure and unflattering images (89.3%, 88.7%). Personal information disclosure raised moderate concern (67.0%). Conversely, relational content depicting friends and achievements generated minimal objection (13.8–17.9%), as children recognized such posts as enhancing social capital. Drawing on Goffman's impression management theory, Beck's risk society thesis, and Bourdieu's social capital concept, I demonstrate that children function as competent digital citizens who demand control over their bodies, emotions, and narratives while permitting strategic visibility. These findings challenge deficit models and call for reorienting sharenting discourse toward children's autonomy and rights-based claims.