Sharenting in digital society: exploring the prospects of an emerging moral panic
Sharenting in digital society: exploring the prospects of an emerging moral panic
Debates about the risks of sharenting (the practice of parents or guardians sharing information about their children online) are gathering storm in global media reports and academic discourse. This paper analyses media representations of the practice and its risks to examine whether the attributes of a moral panic can be detected. Results reveal the presence of the attributes and the reductive depiction of sharenting risks and harms as the products of situational factors, specifically the sharenters’ agency. The paper critiques this finding and argues that a consideration of broader structural conditions marked by the power and ability of social media platforms to structure information flow and diffusion is required. This is necessary to contextualize and advance understanding of risks associated with new and emerging digital cultures such as sharenting which do not necessarily constitute criminal acts but are depicted as transgressive or deviant by the media due to the capacity of embedded practices to produce crimes and broader harms.
Ugwudike, Pamela
2faf9318-093b-4396-9ba1-2291c8991bac
Lavorgna, Anita
08dee148-90b2-45df-9437-aee60555d495
Tartari, Morena
4c6fe88a-b772-4c2f-b1ec-f0109dff6128
13 September 2023
Ugwudike, Pamela
2faf9318-093b-4396-9ba1-2291c8991bac
Lavorgna, Anita
08dee148-90b2-45df-9437-aee60555d495
Tartari, Morena
4c6fe88a-b772-4c2f-b1ec-f0109dff6128
Ugwudike, Pamela, Lavorgna, Anita and Tartari, Morena
(2023)
Sharenting in digital society: exploring the prospects of an emerging moral panic.
Deviant Behavior.
(doi:10.1080/01639625.2023.2254446).
Abstract
Debates about the risks of sharenting (the practice of parents or guardians sharing information about their children online) are gathering storm in global media reports and academic discourse. This paper analyses media representations of the practice and its risks to examine whether the attributes of a moral panic can be detected. Results reveal the presence of the attributes and the reductive depiction of sharenting risks and harms as the products of situational factors, specifically the sharenters’ agency. The paper critiques this finding and argues that a consideration of broader structural conditions marked by the power and ability of social media platforms to structure information flow and diffusion is required. This is necessary to contextualize and advance understanding of risks associated with new and emerging digital cultures such as sharenting which do not necessarily constitute criminal acts but are depicted as transgressive or deviant by the media due to the capacity of embedded practices to produce crimes and broader harms.
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Sharenting in Digital Society Exploring the Prospects of an Emerging Moral Panic
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Accepted/In Press date: 24 August 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 13 September 2023
Published date: 13 September 2023
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Funding Information:
To address the gap in knowledge, this paper applies moral panics theory to an analysis of media reports about sharenting practice. The article forms part of a research project entitled, ProTechThem-Building Awareness for Safer and Technology-Savvy Sharenting, which is funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 482191
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/482191
ISSN: 0163-9625
PURE UUID: 50dcbe17-b078-4a55-a703-54ac4488300d
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Date deposited: 20 Sep 2023 16:52
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:41
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Author:
Anita Lavorgna
Author:
Morena Tartari
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