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Field study · N=284 · year one · ongoing
A living study of what parents share — and the children growing up inside the feed.
We don't judge. We measure. Then we ask the question the child can't yet: who is all of this for?
About the project
What we're building, and why.
Sharenting became the global default in about a decade. Most of the research is small qualitative studies; most of the public conversation is opinion columns. This project sits between the two — a larger quantitative study, written in the open, built with the families it studies.
01
A participant survey at scale
Eight minutes, anonymous, IRB-reviewed — designed to gather quantitative evidence at a size the field mostly lacks.
02
Field notes in public
Methodology and early findings posted while the study is still live — not held back for a paper years from now.
03
Children as participants
Only 10.9% of prior studies asked the children themselves. We include them by design, with consent built in.
04
Open, cited, reviewable
Every claim traces back to a source. The whole project is meant to be checked, not just trusted.
Named for the phenomenon, not a position — we're not here to judge parents.
A live view of the work in progress.
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We need parents in the data.
The literature is split roughly 56/41 between qualitative and quantitative work. This study runs a larger quantitative survey — and it only works with parents who actually share.
Before you start
01Takes 8 minutes
02Fully anonymous
03No account needed
04IRB-reviewed
No follow-up emails. No resale. No identifying information — ever.
The practice is now the norm, not the exception.
SHE IS IN EVERY ONE
~1,000
Photos of the average child shared before age five.
Nominet, 2015
81%
Of parents share photos, stories, or videos of their children.
AVG, 2010
70%+
Use their children's real names online.
AVG, 2010
98%
Of mothers in one regional study posted info about their child.
Cited in Tosuntaş & Griffiths, 2024
Awareness, on its own, doesn't predict behavior.
Parents know the risks and share anyway. The interesting finding in the literature isn't ignorance — it's the gap between what people understand and what they do.
62%
believe their privacy settings are sufficient to protect their child.
68%
say they prefer sharing activities over personal details.
41%
deliberately hide birthdays or school names.
And yet, the question that matters most
Do they ask the child first?
Only 10.9% of studies include the children
What the children say.
"The generational divergence, where observed, is less about technology than about consent."
32%
felt sad when their parents posted pictures of them.
27%
felt embarrassed by what was shared about them.
1 in 5
believed their parents shared personal information about them.
18%
had already asked a parent to delete a post.
Latest news
All news → Scheduled
Spring 2026
The 2026 participant survey opens
The first call for parents goes live in spring. We'll post the first findings here once it closes — until then, the study runs in the open.
Read →
Published
Feb 2026
The full study protocol is now public
Survey design, consent procedures, and the ethics review are posted in the open ahead of launch — on the record before a single response is collected.
Read →
Update
Jan 2026
The project begins, in the open
Year one is underway. We're writing the methodology and early field notes publicly while the study is still live — not holding them back for a paper years from now.
Read →
The review this project builds on.
Systematic review · open access
Sharenting: A systematic review of the empirical literature
The people conducting the study.
PORTRAIT
Principal Investigator
Dr. Layla Mansour
Developmental psychologist studying childhood and consent.
AUC
PORTRAIT
Co-Investigator · Quant Lead
Dr. Omar Kassab
Data scientist leading survey design and analysis.
Imperial
PORTRAIT
Qualitative Lead
Nour El-Sayed, MPH
Public-health researcher leading the child interviews.
Johns Hopkins
PORTRAIT
Ethics · Participant Liaison
Hana Darwish
Oversees survey ethics and participant consent.
Oxford Internet Institute
Methodology and consent procedures are reviewed by an independent ethics board.
Read the full protocol →