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Criminogenic and harm-enabling features of social media platforms: The case of sharenting practices

Criminogenic and harm-enabling features of social media platforms: The case of sharenting practices
Criminogenic and harm-enabling features of social media platforms: The case of sharenting practices
Sharenting – that is, the sharing of identifying and sensitive information of minors, who are often overexposed online by parents or guardians – has, at times, criminogenic potential, as the information shared can enable both heinous crimes and other types of harmful conducts. While most research on sharenting has focused on the sharenters and their agency, there is a gap in addressing whether and to what extent social media platforms display criminogenic features that can render sharenting risky for affected minors. By relying on a adapted crime proofing of legislation approach, our contribution analyses the self-regulations (in the form of corporate documents and forms of self-organisation) of five major social media platforms, and identifies several risks and vulnerabilities to harmful sharenting practices embedded in the platforms’ policies. In doing so, the study demonstrates how criminological imagination can effectively contribute to the multidisciplinary debates on digital ecosystems and their regulation, paving the way for a reduction of criminogenic and harm-enabling opportunities online.
Sharenting; digital harms; crime proofing of legislation; self-regulation; social media platforms
1477-3708
Lavorgna, Anita
6e34317e-2dda-42b9-8244-14747695598c
Tartari, Morena
860570d5-987e-433f-bc50-10a49def97ca
Ugwudike, Pamela
2faf9318-093b-4396-9ba1-2291c8991bac
Lavorgna, Anita
6e34317e-2dda-42b9-8244-14747695598c
Tartari, Morena
860570d5-987e-433f-bc50-10a49def97ca
Ugwudike, Pamela
2faf9318-093b-4396-9ba1-2291c8991bac

Lavorgna, Anita, Tartari, Morena and Ugwudike, Pamela (2022) Criminogenic and harm-enabling features of social media platforms: The case of sharenting practices. European Journal of Criminology. (doi:10.1177/147737082211316).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Sharenting – that is, the sharing of identifying and sensitive information of minors, who are often overexposed online by parents or guardians – has, at times, criminogenic potential, as the information shared can enable both heinous crimes and other types of harmful conducts. While most research on sharenting has focused on the sharenters and their agency, there is a gap in addressing whether and to what extent social media platforms display criminogenic features that can render sharenting risky for affected minors. By relying on a adapted crime proofing of legislation approach, our contribution analyses the self-regulations (in the form of corporate documents and forms of self-organisation) of five major social media platforms, and identifies several risks and vulnerabilities to harmful sharenting practices embedded in the platforms’ policies. In doing so, the study demonstrates how criminological imagination can effectively contribute to the multidisciplinary debates on digital ecosystems and their regulation, paving the way for a reduction of criminogenic and harm-enabling opportunities online.

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Criminogenic and harm-enabling features of social media platforms - Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 16 September 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 21 November 2022
Published date: 21 November 2022
Additional Information: This paper presents findings from the ESRC project entitled: ProTechThem: Building Awareness for Safer and Technology-Savvy Sharenting ES/V011278/1
Keywords: Sharenting; digital harms; crime proofing of legislation; self-regulation; social media platforms

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 471271
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/471271
ISSN: 1477-3708
PURE UUID: aef42503-a9af-4a7a-a74c-62039b86b384
ORCID for Anita Lavorgna: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-8484-1613
ORCID for Morena Tartari: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2207-3473
ORCID for Pamela Ugwudike: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1084-7796

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Date deposited: 01 Nov 2022 17:51
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:47

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Contributors

Author: Anita Lavorgna ORCID iD
Author: Morena Tartari ORCID iD
Author: Pamela Ugwudike ORCID iD

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