If you're not one yourself, you've probably come across one, perhaps even taken advantage of apps such as Unbaby.me, which helpfully replaces the endless feed of baby pictures with images of cats or, if you prefer, bacon. Because sharents have a tendency to get a little … carried away.
2019, The Unmumsy One, The Unmumsy Mum A-Z – An Inexpert Guide to Parenting, unnumbered page:
When I consider that broadcasting my innermost parenting thoughts and failures on the internet was the foundation of my blog and the driving force behind any social media engagement I've had, I realise that I am probably a professional sharent.
2020, Veronica Barassi, Child Data Citizen: How Tech Companies Are Profiling Us from Before Birth, page 134:
During the interview, Maya told me that she was a passionate sharent; she loved to post about her son and tell stories about his life.
2020, Leah A. Plunkett, Sharenthood: Why We Should Think Before We Talk About Our Kids Online, page 55:
Through YouTube channels, blogs, Instagram accounts, and other digital platforms, commercial sharents use their families' everyday experiences to create revenue-generating content that is available to the public.
2021, Heidi Boghosian, "I Have Nothing to Hide": And 20 Other Myths About Surveillance and Privacy, page 71:
Many parents in the US have a steep learning curve about the nuances of online predation at a time when more than 90 percent of two-year-olds have an online presence, thanks to “sharents” (parents who overshare on social media).
Verb: "(neologism) to document one's child's upbringing on social media, typically by posting photos, videos, etc."[edit]
2016, Suzie Hayman & John Coleman, Parents and Digital Technology: How to Raise the Connected Generation, page 46:
If you are going to sharent, it's worth being careful about the privacy settings you establish.
2020, Jenny Ungbha Korn, "Expecting penises in Chatroulette: Race, gender, and sexuality in anonymous online spaces", in Self-(re)presentation Now (ed. Nancy Thumim), unnumbered page:
The fact that children are, themselves, contested subjects of social media—often younger than the age of consent for companies' terms and conditions, potentially vulnerable through their immaturity or special needs—exacerbates the difficulty of representing the relational self for parent bloggers and can even encourage “parent bashing,” although all those who “sharent” experience some of these difficulties.
2020, John Palfrey, forward of Leah A. Plunkett, Sharenthood: Why We Should Think Before We Talk About Our Kids Online, page X:
Adults are sharenting because the structure of the online world makes it very easy to do and even encourages it.
2020, Rosemary Jay, "Healthcare data about children in social media: the challenges raised under the GDPR", Health Data Privacy Under the GDPR: Big Data Challenges and Regulatory Responses (ed. Maria Tzanou), page 53:
If this is the case, and the remedy is adopted by children to remove embarrassing material sharented by parents, social media providers may find themselves in the unenviable position of having to adjudicate between the rights of the parent to freedom of expression and the rights of the child to privacy.
2021, Anna Potter and Renee Barnes, "The 'Sharent' Trap: Parenting in the Digital Age and a Child's Right to Privacy", in Young Children's Rights in a Digital World: Play, Design and Practice (eds. Catherine Archer, Donell Holloway, Francesca Stocco, Karen Murcia, & Michele A. Willson), page 286:
Thus, this study aimed to ascertain how Australian parents are sharenting on social media, and to understand both their awareness of risk, and their perceptions of their children's rights to privacy.