Researching Representations of Children and Childhood on Instagram: Ethical and Methodological Considerations

Mothers’ self-representations and representations of childhood on social media

“…Children get used to photography, if it is a part of everyday life, but parents make decisions about sharing photos on social media, of which small children have a limited understanding (Kallio, 2021). Children's opportunities to influence self-presentation are limited (Choi and Lewallen, 2018; Dobson and Jay, 2020; Kallio, 2021) and for example in adolescence children may find the content shared by their parents embarrassing (Verswijvel, et al , 2019).…”

“…Sharenting practices are diverse and based on different motives. They have been examined, among other things, from the perspective of family photography practices (Kumar and Schoenebeck, 2015) and mommy influencers/family influencers (Abidin, 2017; Archer, 2019; Dobson and Jay, 2020; Hunter, 2016; Jorge et al , 2022). Mommy blogs have become more commercial and professional (Hunter, 2016).…”

“…Even though parents may be aware of online and social media threats, such as pedophilia and data collection about children (Autenrieth, 2018, p. 222), and they may have adopted a child protection perspective, they may still share photos and information about their children because the child is so essentially a part of their self-presentation as parents (Holiday et al , 2020). It has been seen as problematic that children have limited agency in representations about them and their lives on their parents' social media (Dobson and Jay, 2020), and that small children participate in the promotional posts, even though their understanding and opinions about their exposure to commercial sharenting will be formed in the future (Kallio, 2021).…”

“…Purchasing children’s clothing and investing in children’s appearances have increasingly interested researchers in recent years (Andersen et al , 2007; Huopalainen and Satama, 2020; McNeill and Graham, 2014; Åberg and Huvila, 2019). Moreover, extensive attention is being paid to the use of social media by mothers, including mommy bloggers and mom influencers (Abidin, 2017; Archer, 2019; Dobson and Jay, 2020; Hunter, 2016; Jorge et al , 2022; Lehto, 2021), as well as to the sharenting phenomenon (Ammari et al , 2015; Autenrieth, 2018; Blum-Ross and Livingstone, 2017; Holiday et al , 2020; Steinberg, 2017). Previous research has suggested that as the use of the visual social media Instagram continues to increase, there is a need for research on the presence of children in its imagery (Archer, 2019) and also how children's visual representations “influence different spheres of contemporary life” (Dobson and Jay, 2020, p. 74).…”