The expert on the sharenting trend: Problematic with boundless parents

In recent months, the concept of sharenting has been widely debated in American and English media. The origin is a conflict between Gwyneth Paltrow and her daughter Apple, after the mother shared a picture of the daughter without the daughter's consent. The event has been interpreted as the first Internet generation's major teenage revolt.

Elsa Dunkels is an associate professor of pedagogy at Umeå University and an expert in online culture. She is not surprised that Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter is reacting to her mother's Internet behavior.

- I imagine there will be a lot of conflicts between children and adults in the future. That children and adults think differently about what is being uploaded. Many of the conflicts can probably land in the child's feeling that you as a parent are selfish. If there are other thoughts behind sharing content about them, it's important to convey those thoughts, says Elza Dunkels.

Dunkels thinks that the concept of sharenting is loaded with values ​​and wants to talk about boundless parenting instead. And such have always existed, she says.

Documenting your child's life digitally can be valuable as long as it happens on the child's terms. The difficulties arise if the sharing of content occurs unthinkingly and without consent, when the delay of analog life is put out of play, as Dunkels puts it. This can lead to parents sharing privacy-infringing content about their children, such as their children's friends.

- This is a manifestation of parents who do not respect their children's boundaries and integrity. Limitlessness has existed before, parents who have drawn funny stories about their children at family dinners are of the same type.

But is there no difference between a private family dinner and a digital place where everything becomes public?

- The Internet offers a potentially endless audience, but the whole world is not interested. That is true for most people. Content can spread more widely, but you should not overdo those risks, says Elza Dunkels.

She continues:

- It is difficult to say generally that you should not share pictures of your children, it is not dangerous in itself.

Elza Dunkels is careful to point out that there are pros and cons to all development. Social media and forums can often offer comfort and advice on difficult issues, and she describes this as an asset for new parents. The Internet makes them feel less alone.

- There is a development where more people are telling how they are feeling, and people are lining up for them. But as an adult, one should always consider when handing out one's child, and what problems there are with that child. Of course, that information can come to rest.

- Ventilating a serious problem in public indicates a kind of limitlessness or desperation. By extension, it could be bad when a classmate for the children reads what the parent has written, or when the child has grown up and reads it himself.

On January 1, 2020, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child will become Swedish law. Then it may be illegal to share pictures and information on their children without their consent, as the UN Convention establishes the children's right to privacy.