Table 1.
Characteristics of the included studies.
| Study, year | Study aim | Study design | Country | Setting and context | Identity type | Participants | Age | Sex |
| Ammari et al [19], 2015 | To investigate how parents decide what to disclose about their children on SNSsa | Qualitative | United States | Sharenting and the shared responsibility of parents in managing their children’s online identities | SDIb | 102 parents | Data unavailable | Male and female |
| Bare [43], 2020 | To provide an overview of the images of children being posted to Instagram by parents under the hashtag #letthembelittle | Qualitative | United States | Content analysis of Instagram posts of children with the hashtag #letthembelittle. | SDI and PDIc | Unspecified | Data unavailable | Data unavailable |
| Benevento [44], 2022 | To understand how photographs shared on social media connect and express values regarding childhood | Narrative inquiry | Not specified | Analyzing Instagram postings and comments on photos of children on 2 hashtags—#letthekids and #fashionkids | SDI | Not specified | Data unavailable | Data unavailable |
| Bezakova et al [45], 2021 | To identify the extent of the problem of sharing content on minors with family members on social media (sharenting), identify legal solutions to the problem, and point out the importance of adequate social mechanisms (media and marketing) to raise awareness of the issue | Analytical-synthetic and comparative research methods | Not specified | Analyzing sharenting of sensitive data on social media, comments, reviews, blogs, web portals, and emails. Identifying legal solutions to protect children. | SDI | Not specified | Data unavailable | Data unavailable |
| Briazu et al [46], 2021 | To investigate how the risks and benefits alongside psychosocial variables affected the Facebook sharenting behavior of mothers of young children | Mixed methods | United Kingdom | Facebook sharenting behaviors of mothers | SDI | 190 mothers of young children | 62.6% were aged between 25 and 34 y | Female |
| Brosch [10], 2016 | To learn about parents’ habits regarding their children on Facebook, especially how much and what kind of information about their children they share | Social media ethnography | Poland | Sharenting on Facebook. Exponential nondiscriminative snowball recruiting. | SDI | 168 parents with a child or children aged <8 y | Data unavailable | Data unavailable |
| Choi and Lewallen [47], 2018 | To examine how children are represented on Instagram and how children are depicted in relation to traditional stereotypes | Mixed methods | United States | Content analysis of 510 photos of children on Instagram on children’s gender and racial representations on social media | SDI and PDI | Not specified | Data unavailable | Data unavailable |
| Cino and Dalledonne Vandini [40], 2020 | To investigate how boundaries of children’s social media presence are understood and experienced within interacting systems regarding the relationship between MILsd and DILse | Literature review and qualitative study | United States | Digital dilemmas on their children’s digital footprints, privacy, and social media presence created by members external to the family, such as the child’s teacher. Analysis of parents’ posts on a BabyCenter community, a web-based parenting forum. | SDI | 300 parents | Most were female. Specific data are unavailable. | Data unavailable |
| Dobson and Jay [18], 2020 | This paper explored the representation of children and family life, with an emphasis on the “image of the child” that exists on Instagram. | Qualitative | Australia | Perspectives and experiences of an influencer parent sharenting photos on Instagram | SDI and PDI | 1 mother | Data unavailable | Female |
| Er et al [48], 2022 | To investigate sharenting during the early COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine periods | Qualitative | Turkey | Sharenting during the pandemic and quarantine period. Descriptive content analysis of the Instagram profiles of the parents—401 posts from Instagram | SDI | Unspecified | Data unavailable | Data unavailable |
| Fox et al [50], 2022 | To explore first-time fathers’ vulnerabilities and decisions to engage in sharenting, especially given that marketers seek to connect with new parents on social media via engagement tactics that prompt sharenting | Mixed methods | United States | First-time fathers’ willingness to sharent on social media and their level of perceived sensitivity to their children’s information. Web-based survey on Amazon Mechanical Turk using Prime Panels and grounded theory. | SDI | 75 first-time fathers | Aged 20 to 40 y | Male |
| Fox and Hoy [49], 2019 | Study 1: to explore mothers’ expressions of vulnerability and how these relations can be linked to their motivations for sharing children’s PIIf on social media. Study 2: to explore mothers of young children in a Twitter chat and the extent to which they post children’s PII, as well as the mother’s vulnerability. | Mixed methods | United States | Qualitative: interaction of consumer vulnerability of the mother and the reasons and decision to post about their children on social media. Quantitative: interaction of a brand—Carter’s, Inc and Children Apparel—with the engagement of mothers on Twitter. | SDI | Study 1: 15 mothers; study 2: 122 participants | Study 1: aged 24-40 y; study 2: data unavailable | Study 1: female; study 2: data unavailable |
| Hashim et al [51], 2021 | To investigate the trends, motives, or purposes behind sharenting by Malaysian parents and their awareness (or lack thereof) of its related privacy issues | Qualitative | Malaysia | Mothers’ motives to sharent and the type of content they post frequently and like to update their status with or post on social media | SDI | 40 mothers | 52.5% were aged between 31 and 40 y | Data unavailable |
| Holiday et al [52], 2022 | To identify how parents self-present in their sharenting posts | Qualitative | United States | Self-representation on Instagram posts about their children | SDI and PDI | Unspecified | Data unavailable | Data unavailable |
| Jorge et al [17], 2022 | To explore how Cristiano Ronaldo, his partner, and his mother shared information about his children on Instagram between 2018 and 2020 | Qualitative | Portugal | Sharenting of a celebrity, Cristiano Ronaldo, and his family members. The digital identity of Cristiano Ronaldo’s children analyzed through sharenting by Ronaldo, his partner, and his mother on Instagram. | SDI and PDI | 3 participants (mother, father, and grandmother) | Data unavailable | Data unavailable |
| Kopecky et al [53], 2020 | To investigate the type of content that parents publish about their children and compare this behavior between Czech and Spanish parents | Quantitative study | Czech Republic and Spain | Comparing sharenting content, extent, and behaviors in 2 countries. The study was conducted on the web (Google Forms distributed through Facebook, Instagram, email, and WhatsApp channels) | SDI | 1093 Czech parents and 367 Spanish parents | Czech parents aged 25 to 64 y; Spanish parents aged 21 to 61 y | Men and women |
| Kumar and Schoenebeck [9], 2015 | To gather mothers’ narratives and experiences about sharing baby photos on Facebook. To show how identity performance allows mothers to enact—and receive validation of—good mothering. | Qualitative study | United States | Attitudes, opinions, and experiences of sharing baby photos on Facebook and mothers’ perceptions of Facebook and other sites | SDI | 22 mothers | Aged 25 to 39 y | Female |
| Kumar [54], 2021 | To investigate how power works through 3 fields of discourse that govern parents’ social media conduct | Review and qualitative study—“thinking with theory” method | United States | Governmentality and parents’ conduct in sharenting | SDI | Unspecified | Data unavailable | Data unavailable |
| Latipah et al [55], 2020 | To describe the sharenting model by millennial parents as a process of exchanging information between parents in parenting, mentoring, education, and child development | Phenomenological approach | Indonesia | Motives, impact, and ways of sharenting. Interview was completed via the web. | SDI and PDI | 10 parents | Aged 24 to 35 y | 5 female and 5 male |
| Leaver [7], 2020 | To investigate how exactly the digital communication and sharing of and by parents about their children can be balanced with children’s rights to privacy both in the present and, more challengingly, in the future | Critical review of parenting practices through examples | Australia | Sharenting children’s sensitive information on Instagram, Facebook, wearables, and apps (Owlet Smart Sock and Peakaboo Moments); web safety; and children’s rights to opt out | SDI and PDI | Unspecified | Data unavailable | Data unavailable |
| Marasli et al [56], 2016 | To investigate the use frequency and the content of social media sharing and investigate the information a group of parents shared on the web about their children via content analysis |
Mixed methods | Turkey | Sharenting on Facebook | SDI | 219 parents | 41.7% were aged 31 to 40 y | Data unavailable |
| Mascheroni et al [62], 2023 | To investigate the patterns of sharing among a nationally representative sample of parents of children aged 0 to 8 y. To identify the presence of recurrent sharenting styles. To examine the relationship between sharenting styles and parents’ sociodemographic information and between sharenting styles and parental practices of privacy management adopted to govern their children’s social media presence. | Quantitative | Italy | Sharenting styles, extent of sharenting, and parents’ privacy management practices | SDI | 1000 Italian parents | Aged 18 to 54 y | Male and female |
| Minkus et al [57], 2015 | To measure adults’ sharing of children’s PII in web-based social networks, namely, Facebook and Instagram | Mixed methods | United States | Analysis of images shared on Facebook and Instagram | SDI | 2383 Facebook users and 1089 Instagram users | ≥18 y | Women and men |
| Morris [58], 2014 | To provide insights into the types of child-related content that mothers of infants and toddlers are willing to share on SNSs | Mixed methods | United States | How mothers of young children use Facebook and Twitter and mothers’ perceptions on the appropriate site on which to share photos of their children. Survey was completed on the web. | SDI | 412 mothers | Aged 19 to 46 y | Female |
| Sarkadi et al [59], 2020 | To investigate children’s thoughts about sharenting | Quantitative | Sweden | Children’s views on sharenting. Survey was completed on the web. | SDI | 68 children | Aged 4 to 15 y | Two-thirds were boys, and one-third were girls |
| Turgut et al [60], 2021 | To investigate what factors affect what parents share on social media about their children | Qualitative study | Turkey | Sharenting and its associated factors and parents’ views on legal liability | SDI | 88 parents | Aged 22 to 45 y | Data unavailable |
| Wagner and Gasche [61], 2018 | To investigate what factors parents consider when disclosing personal information about their children on SNSs and what strategies they apply | Qualitative | Germany and Austria | Parents’ thoughts on drivers and inhibitors of disclosing children’s photos on SNSs | SDI | 220 mothers | Data unavailable (mean age 31.1 y) | Data unavailable |
aSNS: social networking site.
bSDI: social digital identity.
cPDI: performative digital identity.
dMIL: mother-in-law.
eDIL: daughter-in-law.
fPII: personally identifiable information.