Parents often celebrate newborns with social media posts featuring the baby’s full name, date of birth, and photos. These birth announcements number around 375,000 on Instagram alone, including high-profile shares like the one from Molly-Mae and Tommy Fury that garnered 3.5 million likes.
Sharenting’s Hidden Dangers
This practice, known as sharenting, exposes children to significant risks. Parenting coach Lucinda Rose highlights the issue in a video, stating: “Birth announcements and birthday posts on social media are two of the most dangerous things a parent can put on social media. What criminals need is data, because by taking data they can commit identity theft. They need our full name and date of birth. What do parents always put on social media as soon as they have a baby? Their full name and date of birth.”
Financial experts warn that fraudsters target personal details such as names, dates of birth, addresses, marital status, email addresses, and bank information to perpetrate scams.
Potential Long-Term Consequences
Posting a child’s name and birth date online can lead to fraudulent loans, credit card applications, or shopping sprees in the child’s name. Victims may face challenges securing loans or mortgages later due to damaged credit histories.
Projections indicate that such social media shares could drive two-thirds of identity fraud cases among young people by 2030, with an estimated 7.4 million incidents annually by decade’s end. Jodie Gilbert, head of digital safety at Barclays, explains: “Through social media, it has never been easier for fraudsters to gather the key pieces of information required to steal someone’s identity. It’s vital to think before you post, and to carry out regular audits of your social media accounts to prevent that information from falling into the wrong hands.”
Beyond birth details, parents frequently reveal ages, home addresses, places of birth, maiden names, schools, pet names, and favorite sports teams, amplifying vulnerabilities.
Parents Share Their Regrets and Choices
Many parents express remorse after posting birth announcements. One shared on Reddit: “We shared full name, date of birth and a picture with her face but honestly I wish I hadn’t. I just didn’t think it through… I’ve since realised that no one is actually entitled to photos of her or information about her.”
TikToker Imogen added: “I felt awful when I realised how careless it was and I would never do it again.” Another father noted: “My birth announcement was one of the only things I’ve ever posted about my baby and now I’ve got to delete that, too. I’m sick of the world we live in.” A parent reflected: “I removed the date and the weights and their full name, I was so naïve to post them at first.”
Some parents defend sharing selectively. One Reddit user said: “I posted it all, it was like a birth announcement… I think you should share whatever you’re comfortable with sharing. For me, I wanted everyone to ‘meet’ her.” Others posted to match family shares or limited to private accounts: “My partner and I only posted because our families were posting non-stop… I posted a couple pictures on my private FB/IG account with his name and birth date, and that’s all that’s going to be on social media until he’s old enough to have his own accounts.”
