Risks
Sharenting
Parents posting photos, videos, names, and stories about their children online, which can cost those children privacy and feed later misuse.
- Parents
What parents should know
Sharenting is when parents share their kids' lives online. A cute video can become a voice a scammer clones or a face someone misuses. You do not have to quit posting. You can post less, skip full names and school logos, and ask older kids before a picture goes up. They cannot consent to a post from when they were four, so keep those lighter.
On this page
What is sharenting?
The word joins sharing and parenting. It covers public social posts, blogs, and private albums that are larger than you think. The details that cause trouble later are faces, voices, routines, school names, and locations. A first name plus a team jersey plus a front door is a dossier a stranger did not have to steal.
Children grow into the archive. A post that felt fine at age six can embarrass them at sixteen, and a public video can be the training clip for a voice clone. Sharenting is not a moral stain. It is a set of files you still control more than you will next year.
Why sharenting matters
Deepfakes and impersonation scams need source material. Parents are often the people who published it with love. Reducing new public media does not blame you for someone else's crime. It gives them less to work with, and it gives your child a smaller permanent record.
There is also the ordinary privacy loss. Friends of friends can download. Schools and coaches reshare. A child who cannot read yet cannot agree. When they can read, ask. A no is a complete answer.
How it shows up in practice
- A parent posts a back-of-the-head photo from a game instead of a close-up with a name.
- Recital video stays in a family album instead of a public page.
- A teenager reviews old posts with a parent and some come down.
- The family code word is not hinted at in a caption.
How HeyOtto helps
HeyOtto is not a social network for posting your child's day. Projects a child makes can be shared publicly only after you approve, and you can revoke the link. That default is the opposite of an album that starts public. It does not clean up photos you already posted elsewhere. For those, use the platform's own delete tools, and if a posted photo is turned into an intimate fake, report it to NCMEC rather than debating the original post.
- Do not put a child's full name, school, or address in a HeyOtto project you might approve.
- Voice in HeyOtto is the assistant, not a public copy of your child's voice.
- Parent approval is one tap, and revocation does not delete the private project.
For families
Try freeFAQs
Do I have to delete every photo?
No. Start with public posts that show a clear face, a voice, a school, or a routine. Private albums shared with a few adults are a different risk. Ask your older child what they want taken down. You can do this in an evening without a manifesto.
Is sharenting how voice scams start?
It can be one source of audio. Scammers also use voicemail and other people's reposts. The defense is still the callback and a code word, even if you never post. Fewer public videos make the clone slightly harder and the embarrassment smaller.
What if another parent posts my child?
Ask them to take it down or to crop your child. Say it plainly. Group chats and team pages feel private and are often not. You are allowed to want your child's face out of their feed.
What if an old photo was turned into a nude?
That is not your fault for having posted, and it is not a reason to forward the result. If your child is under 18, report to NCMEC and use Take It Down. Stay with them. Do not make them apologize for the original photo.
Sources
Last reviewed September 26, 2026. This entry is reviewed twice a year.