Category: Content Creators

From Cute to Concerning: The Legal and Emotional Costs of Sharenting

After a long day at work, most people now sit down for a nice relaxing…scroll. That’s right, most people have social media and enjoy going through the latest posts to wind down or pass the time. Whether it’s on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok someone is looking at a post made by a parent displaying their child doing something adorable, funny, documenting a family trip or marking a milestone like the first day of school. What seems like an innocent post, can be something much darker.

What is Sharenting

As social media gained traction in recent years, so did sharenting. Sharenting is  when

a parent overshares or excessively posts information, pictures stories or updates about their child’s life.

A proud parent could post the smiling face of their child at a sporting event on their private account thinking only family and friends will see it. Some parents even post daily vlogs involving their children making money on filming their day to day with strangers. Most parents engage in sharenting to share details of their child because they are proud of them. Some want to build a digital archive, or want to connect with loved ones. Others are even trying to build camaraderie with other parents, and they could even be trying to help others. Most parents do this with the purest motives in mind; however, their content is not always received as it is intended.

The Risks of Sharenting

Legal Risks

As established in Troxel v. Grainville, parents have a fundamental right to raise their children as they see fit. This includes education, religion, and even social media. Parents have a First Amendment right to speech just as much as a child does when it comes to posting online. Parents are protected in their posting videos and pictures of their children under the First Amendment; however, this right is not unlimited. These restrictions apply in certain circumstances such as child explosion laws, or other compelling state interests.

Children also have a right to privacy that conflicts with their parents First Amendment right of speech and expression in the context of posting them online.  Under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), significant protections for children’s online privacy were established. COPPA imposes certain requirements on operators of websites or online services directed

to children under 13 years of age, and on operators of other websites or online services that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information online from a child under 13 years of age.

COPPA, however, only targets protecting children’s data not the actual child from the risks of being online.

Psychological Risks

 In addition to the legal risks of sharenting, there are also many psychological risks. What happens when a parent posts that one picture that comes back to haunt their child later on. These videos and images can be used by other students to bully the child down the road. Children can have a harder time developing their own image and identity when they are prescribed an online persona by their parents through their posts.

Even with pure motives, a survey of parents discussed by Dr. Albers of the Cleveland Health Clinic found that:

74% of parents using social media knew another parent engaging in sharenting behavior.

56% said the parents shared embarrassing information about their kid.

51% said the parent provided details that revealed their child’s location.

27% said the parent circulated inappropriate phots.

The impact that these posts that, once are made are always out there, can be detrimental to a child’s mental health. Social media, according to the Mayo Clinic, already amplifies adolescents’ anxiety and depression. Parents can add to this by sharenting.

Other Risks

These seemingly innocent posts can often lead to greater risks,  for their children than most parents realize. In addition to negative psychological impacts, sharenting can endanger the child’s mental health as well as their physical health. Sharenting is a window directly into a child’s life, one which a predator can abuse. Images can be taken from their parents accounts and shared to sites for pedophiles.

The taking of these images can also enable identity theft, harassment, bullying, exploitation and even violence.

Parents who have gotten famous from posting their kids like the Labrant Family and The Fisher’s have increased their kids risk of being subject to one of these crimes by constantly posting them online.

Sharenting can blur the line between a fun posts and advertising your child to strangers.  In extreme situations creating dangerous environments for internet famous children.

Parents are also contributing to their child’s digital identity which could impact their future educational and employment prospects. It could also lead to embarrassment that the content was shared, and they cannot get rid of it.

How Can Parents Protect their Kids

As social media continues to grow and be a part of our daily lives, parents can take action to protect their children going forward. One way parents can do this is by blurring or covering their child’s face with an emoji. Parents can still have the excitement of posting their child’s achievements or milestones without exposing their identity to the internet.

Parents can think before they post.

If you’re trying to decide whether a post counts as sharenting, ask yourself these questions:

What’s the content?

Why am I posting it?

Who’s my intended audience? Have I set my permissions accordingly?

Is my child old enough to understand the concept of a digital footprint? If they are, did I ask their consent? If not, do I think they’d be happy to see this online when they’re older?

Sharenting is not going to stop, but it can evolve to be done in a way that protects a parent’s right to post and their child’s safety.

 

Social Media, Minors, and Algorithms, Oh My!

What is an algorithm and why does it matter?

Social media algorithms are intricately designed data organization systems aimed at maximizing user engagement by sorting and delivering content tailored to individual preferences. At their core, social media algorithms collect and subsequently use extensive user data, employing machine learning techniques to better understand and predict user behavior. Social media algorithms note and analyze hundreds of thousands of data points, including past interactions, likes, shares, content preferences, time spent viewing content, and social connections to curate a personalized feed for each user. Social media algorithms are designed this way to keep users on the site, thus giving the site more time to put advertisements on the user’s feed and drive more profits for the social media site in question. The fundamental objective of an algorithm is to capture and maintain user attention, expose the user to an optimal amount of advertisements, and use data from users to curate their feed to keep them engaged for longer.

Addiction comes in many forms

One key element contributing to the addictiveness of social media is the concept of variable rewards. Algorithms strategically present a mix of content, varying in type and engagement level, to keep users interested in their feed. This unpredictability taps into the psychological principle of operant conditioning, where intermittent reinforcement, such as receiving likes, comments, or discovering new content, reinforces habitual platform use. Every time a user sees an entertaining post or receives a positive notification, the brain releases dopamine, the main chemical associated with addiction and addictive behaviors. The constant stream of notifications and updates, fueled by algorithmic insights and carefully tailored content suggestions, can create a sense of anticipation in users for their next dopamine fix, which encourages users to frequently update and scan their feeds to receive the next ‘reward’ on their timeline. The algorithmic and numbers-driven emphasis on user engagement metrics, such as the amount of likes, comments, and shares on a post, further intensifies the competitive and social nature of social media platforms, promoting frequent use.

Algorithms know you too well

Furthermore, algorithms continuously adapt to user behavior through real-time machine learning. As users engage with content, algorithms will analyze and refine their predictions, ensuring that the content remains compelling and relevant to the user over time. This iterative feedback loop further deepens the platform’s understanding of individual users, creating a specially curated and highly addictive feed that the user can always turn to for a boost of dopamine. This heightened social aspect, coupled with the algorithms’ ability to surface content that resonates deeply with the user, enhances the emotional connection users feel to the platform and their specific feed, which keeps users coming back time after time. Whether it be from seeing a new, dopamine-producing post, or posting a status that receives many likes and shares, every time one opens a social media app or website, it can produce seemingly endless new content, further reinforcing regular, and often unhealthy use.

A fine line to tread

As explained above, social media algorithms are key to user engagement. They are able to provide seemingly endless bouts of personalized content and maintain users’ undivided attention through their ability to understand the user and the user’s preferences in content. This pervasive influence extends to children, who are increasingly immersed in digital environments from an early age. Social media algorithms can offer constructive experiences for children by promoting educational content discovery, creativity, and social connectivity that would otherwise be impossible without a social media platform. Some platforms, like YouTube Kids, leverage algorithms to recommend age-appropriate content tailored to a child’s developmental stage. This personalized curation of interest-based content can enhance learning outcomes and produce a beneficial online experience for children. However, while being exposed to age-appropriate content may not harm the child viewers, it can still cause problems related to content addiction.

‘Protected Development’

Children are generally known to be naïve and impressionable, meaning full access to the internet can be harmful for their development, as they may take anything they see at face value. The American Psychological Association has said that, “[d]uring adolescent development, brain regions associated with the desire for attention, feedback, and reinforcement from peers become more sensitive. Meanwhile, the brain regions involved in self-control have not fully matured.” Social media algorithms play a pivotal role in shaping the content children can encounter by prioritizing engagement metrics such as likes, comments, and shares. In doing this, social media sites create an almost gamified experience that encourages frequent and prolonged use amongst children. Children also have a tendency to intensely fixate on certain activities, interests, or characters during their early development, further increasing the chances of being addicted to their feed.

Additionally, the addictive nature of social media algorithms poses significant risks to children’s physical and mental well-being. The constant stream of personalized content, notifications, and variable rewards can contribute to excessive screen time, impacting sleep patterns and physical health. Likewise, the competitive nature of engagement metrics may result in a sense of inadequacy or social pressure among young users, leading to issues such as cyberbullying, depression, low self-esteem, and anxiety.

Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids

The New York legislature has spotted the anemic state of internet protection for children and identified the rising mental health issues relating to social media in the youth.  Announced their intentions at passing laws to better protect kids online. The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act is aimed explicitly at social media companies and their feed-bolstering algorithms. The SAFE for Kids Act is intended to “protect the mental health of children from addictive feeds used by social media platforms, and from disrupted sleep due to night-time use of social media.”

Section 1501 of The Act would essentially prohibit operators of social media sites from providing addictive, algorithm-based feeds to minors without first obtaining parental permission. Instead the default feed on the program would be a chronologically sorted main timeline, one more popular in the infancy of social media sites. Section 1502 of The Act would also require social media platforms to obtain parental consent before allowing notifications between the hours of 12:00 AM and 6:00 AM and creates an avenue for opting out of access to the platform between the same hours. The Act would also provide a limit on the overall number of hours a minor can spend on a social media platform. Additionally, the Act would authorize the Office of the Attorney General to bring a legal action to enjoin or seek damages/civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation and allow any parent/guardian of a covered minor to sue for damages of up to $5,000 per user per incident, or actual damages, whichever is greater.

A sign of the times

The Act accurately represents the growing concerns of the public in its justification section, where it details many of the above referenced problems with social media algorithms and the State’s role in curtailing the well-known negative effects they can have on a protected class. The New York legislature has identified the problems that social media addiction can present, and have taken necessary steps in an attempt to curtail it.

Social media algorithms will always play an intricate role in shaping user experiences. However, their addictive nature should rightfully subject them to scrutiny, especially in their effects among children. While social media algorithms offer personalized content and can produce constructive experiences, their addictive nature poses significant risks, prompting legislative responses like the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act.  Considering the profound impact of these algorithms on young users’ physical and mental well-being, a critical question arises: How can we effectively balance the benefits of algorithm-driven engagement with the importance of protecting children from potential harm in the ever evolving digital landscape? The SAFE for Kids Act is a step in the right direction, inspiring critical reflection on the broader responsibility of parents and regulatory bodies to cultivate a digital environment that nurtures healthy online experiences for the next generation.

 

Update Required: An Analysis of the Conflict Between Copyright Holders and Social Media Users

Opening

For anyone who is chronically online as yours truly, in one way or another we have seen our favorite social media influencers, artists, commentators, and content creators complain about their problems with the current US Intellectual Property (IP) system. Be it that their posts are deleted without explanation or portions of their video files are muted, the combination of factors leading to copyright issues on social media is endless. This, in turn, has a markedly negative impact on free and fair expression on the internet, especially within the context of our contemporary online culture. For better or worse, interaction in society today is intertwined with the services of social media sites. Conflict arises when the interests of copyright holders clash with this reality. They are empowered by byzantine and unrealistic laws that hamper our ability to exist as freely as we do in real life. While they do have legitimate and fundamental rights that need to be protected, such rights must be balanced out with desperately needed reform. People’s interaction with society and culture must not be hampered, for that is one of the many foundations of a healthy and thriving society. To understand this, I venture to analyze the current legal infrastructure we find ourselves in.

Current Relevant Law

The current controlling laws for copyright issues on social media are the Copyright Act of 1976 and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The DMCA is most relevant to our analysis; it gives copyright holders relatively unrestrained power to demand removal of their property from the internet and to punish those using illegal methods to get ahold of their property. This broad law, of course, impacted social media sites. Title II of the law added 17 U.S. Code § 512 to the Copyright Act of 1976, creating several safe harbor provisions for online service providers (OSP), such as social media sites, when hosting content posted by third parties. The most relevant of these safe harbors to this issue is 17 U.S. Code § 512(c), which states that an OSP cannot be liable for monetary damages if it meets several requirements and provides a copyright holder a quick and easy way to claim their property. The mechanism, known as a “notice and takedown” procedure, varies by social media service and is outlined in their terms and conditions of service (YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook/Meta). Regardless, they all have a complaint form or application that follows the rules of the DMCA and usually will rapidly strike objectionable social media posts by users. 17 U.S. Code § 512(g) does provide the user some leeway with an appeal process and § 512(f) imposes liability to those who send unjustifiable takedowns. Nevertheless, a perfect balance of rights is not achieved.

The doctrine of fair use, codified as 17 U.S. Code § 107 via the Copyright Act of 1976, also plays a massive role here. It established a legal pathway for the use of copyrighted material for “purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research” without having to acquire right to said IP from the owner. This legal safety valve has been a blessing for social media users, especially with recent victories like Hosseinzadeh v. Klein, which protected reaction content from DMCA takedowns. Cases like Lenz v. Universal Music Corp further established that fair use must be considered by copyright holders when preparing for takedowns. Nevertheless, failure to consider said rights by true copyright holders still happens, as sites are quick to react to DMCA complaints. Furthermore, the flawed reporting systems of social media sites lead to abuse by unscrupulous actors faking true ownership. On top of that, such legal actions can be psychologically and financially intimidating, especially when facing off with a major IP holder, adding to the unbalanced power dynamic between the holder and the poster.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996, which focuses primarily on cellular and landline carriers, is also particularly relevant to social media companies in this conflict. At the time of its passing, the internet was still in its infancy. Thus, it does not incorporate an understanding of the current cultural paradigm we find ourselves in. Specifically, the contentious Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act (Title V of the 1996 Act) works against social media companies in this instance, incorporating a broad and draconian rule on copyright infringement. 47 U.S. Code § 230(e)(2) states in no uncertain terms that “nothing in this section shall be construed to limit or expand any law pertaining to intellectual property.” This has been interpreted and restated in Perfect 10, Inc. v. CCBill LLC to mean that such companies are liable for user copyright infringement. This gap in the protective armor of Section 230 is a great concern to such companies, therefore they react strongly to such issues.

What is To Be Done?

Arguably, fixing the issues around copyright on social media is far beyond the capacity of current legal mechanisms. With ostensibly billions of posts each day on various sites, regulation by copyright holders and sites is far beyond reason. It will take serious reform in the socio-cultural, technological, and legal arenas before a true balance of liberty and justice can be established. Perhaps we can start with an understanding by copyright holders not to overreact when their property is posted online. Popularity is key to success in business, so shouldn’t you value the free marketing that comes with your copyrighted property getting shared honestly within the cultural sphere of social media?  Social media sites can also expand their DMCA case management teams or create tools for users to accredit and even share revenue with, if they are an influencer or content creator, the copyright holder. Finally, congressional action is desperately needed as we have entered a new era that requires new laws. That being said, achieving a balance between the free exchange of ideas and creations and the rights of copyright holders must be the cornerstone of the government’s approach to socio-cultural expression on social media. That is the only way we can progress as an ever more online society.

 

Image: Freepik.com

https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/flat-design-intellectual-property-concept-with-woman-laptop_10491685.htm#query=intellectual%20property&position=2&from_view=keyword”>Image by pikisuperstar

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