Sharenting research
Together with colleagues, research is conducted on sharenting, the ways in which parents share personal information about their children online. More recently, our work has expanded to include grandsharenting, examining how grandparents engage in similar sharing practices on social media.
Our research explores the motives behind (grand)parents’ online sharing behavior, as well as the perceived benefits, consequences, and potential risks associated with these practices. We also study how parents negotiate the sharing of personal information with their adolescent children and how families navigate questions of privacy and consent.
Young people’s perspective on sharenting and how they respond to their parents’ sharing behaviour is also investigated.In addition, we focus on mindful sharenting: the deliberate and reflective way in which parents share information, photos, or videos of their children online, with careful consideration of privacy, autonomy, and the child’s future digital identity.
Research articles:
- Walrave, M., Robbé, S., Staes, L., & Hallam, L. (2023). Mindful sharenting: How millennial parents balance between sharing and protecting. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, Article 1171611. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1171611
- Staes, L., Walrave, M., & Hallam, L. (2023). Grandsharenting: How grandparents in Belgium negotiate the sharing of personal information related to their grandchildren and engage in privacy management strategies on Facebook. Journal of Children and Media, 17(2), 192–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2023.2177318
- Walrave, M., Verswijvel, K., Ouvrein, G., Staes, L., Hallam, L., & Hardies, K. (2022). The limits of sharenting: Exploring parents’ and adolescents’ sharenting boundaries through the lens of communication privacy management theory. Frontiers in Education, 7, Article 803393. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.803393
- Verswijvel, K., Walrave, M., Hardies, K., & Heirman, W. (2019). Sharenting, is it a good or a bad thing? Understanding how adolescents think and feel about sharenting on social network sites. Children and Youth Services Review, 104, 104401. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104401
Book on sharenting:
- Walrave, M., Hudders, L., Vanwesenbeeck, I., & Beuckels, E. (Eds.) (2024). Sharenting practices, consequences and protective measures. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-74105-0
Book chapter on sharenting:
- Walrave, M. (2026). Toward mindful sharenting. How parents and children navigate the online disclosure of personal information. Parenting, privacy, and consent. In Lendvai, G.F., Vizcaino-Verdu, A., Velicu, A., Koltay, A. (Eds.), Transdisciplinary perspectives on sharenting (pp. 117-130). Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003633495-10
- Walrave, M. (2023). The translucent family. In Trepte, S., Masur, Ph. (Eds.). The Routledge handbook of privacy and social media. (pp. 165-174) Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003244677