Italy considers law against sharenting to protect children's privacy

Parents in Italy may have to think twice before posting images and videos of their kids on social media. 

On March 21, 2024, a two-party coalition presented a draft bill to the House of Representatives (Camera dei Deputati) to protect children's privacy online and their right to their own image.

Echoing a recent French law, the proposal aims to regulate a growing digital issue known as sharenting—a contraction between share and parenting, that indicates the practice of oversharing content portraying children on social media platforms. Legislators seek to open up this debate, they said, and mitigate the security risks and psychological impacts the trend causes to youngsters. 

What is sharenting and why does Italy want to regulate it?

"In a world where every aspect of our lives becomes content, driven by visibility mechanisms regulating the social media platforms we use every day, we must work on the exposure of minors based on a simple principle. Faced with the temptation to go viral, we must prioritize the privacy imperative," Serena Mazzini, a social media strategist and author who helped write the draft bill, said to the House of Representatives—here is the full video in Italian.

It takes just a quick scroll on your Instagram or TikTok feeds to see tons of accounts of mums, dads, and families sharing every aspect of their lives with an online audience. Family influencer accounts often begin as amatorial activities, then follow proper editorial strategies, using their children's images as a marketing ploy to claim their slice of an industry set to reach $24 billion by the end of 2024.

With over 10 years of experience in the social media industry, Mazzini was one of the first in Italy to shed light on the risks of oversharing kids' images and videos online—an activity that sees European parents sharing an average of 300 photos of their children each year. The practice becomes especially dangerous when parents aim to make a profit from this content.

She first came across what she described as "the dark side of social media" while carrying out her day-to-day job duties. This reached a tipping point during the pandemic when the brands she worked for were looking for new ways to monetize their online presence. 

"I found myself faced with a world that's unimaginable for an everyday user," said Mazzini. "A world where children become the main content for some parents to display for obtaining as many views as possible."

According to Mazzini's investigation of over 100 accounts across Italy and Portugal, content featuring children can obtain up to three times more interactions and views than those with only adults. Kids filled a social function to help accounts gain more followers and interactions, she explained, ultimately increasing their commercial value.

Kids' massive online presence occurs way before they can have a legal presence on these platforms, too, namely from 13 years old. An even bigger issue is that children never consent for their image to be shared or exploited. The proposed law aims to challenge this.

Italy's sharenting bill

Signed by the coalition between Green Europe (Europa Verdi) and Italian Left (Sinistra Italiana), the 3-article draft bill won't ban parents from sharing their children's images online but aims to mitigate the risks instead.

The first article will require parents to officially declare the use of their children's image online to the Italian Communications Regulatory Authority (AGCOM). If a direct profit is gained from these activities, parents will have to transfer the money to a bank account in the child's name, which will be accessible to the child after they turn 18 years old.

However, baby influencers and the children of politicians and celebrities aren't the only youngsters whose parents overshare their every waking moment on social media.

Despite the goodwill behind this excessive sharing, most parents are guilty of broadcasting highly sensitive information about their kids on a daily basis—without realizing the inherent security risks.

For example, a Carnegie Mellon CyLab study conducted in 2011 found that child identity theft was 51 times more common than for adults. A 2015 Australian study also found that about half of the material on pedophile sites is sourced directly from social media.

A recent New York Times investigation revealed how images of children often attract men sexually attracted to them. The issue is intensified further as AI-generated deepfakes make it even easier to transform innocent pictures of children into over-sexualized content.

That's why legislators are also pushing tech companies to do more to combat sharenting by introducing stricter guidelines for account holders.

Children's right to be forgotten

Another important concern for Italian legislators is the psychological impact sharenting has on youngsters. Generation Alpha (kids born between 2010 and 2025) is, in fact, the first generation that will have to come to terms with a publicly accessible digital library of their childhood once they become adults.

According to Leah Plunkett, author of the book "Sharenthood: Why We Should Think Before We Talk About Our Kids Online," these images frozen in time may hinder children’s ability to develop their own identities later in life.  

"Each of us decides what to share and how to represent ourselves on social media. Kids are denied this choice," said Mazzini, citing cyberbullism and other mental health issues as unintended consequences.

The law intends to return the right to be forgotten to today's children and introduce the possibility of asking for "digital oblivion" after they turn 14. 

The draft bill is now at the beginning of its legislative process in Italy, with a similar proposal also being presented by the Five Star Movement Party (Movimento 5 Stelle)—so, it's still too early to say how the final legislation (if any) will ultimately look like. What is certain, though, is that it's another positive step towards better children's data protection practices in Europe.