Summary Of The Perils Of Sharenting

Sharenting is the recurrent use of social media to post photos or news of one’s children. Adrienne LaFrance, the editor of TheAtlantic.com, wrote an article called “The Perils of Sharenting,” which goes in depth into this subject. The article reveals the dangers that comes with parents posting innocent photos and news online about their children. Her purpose for writing this is to spread awareness regarding the terrors of sharenting; such as: stolen identities, digital kidnapping, and pedophiles viewing the photos. LaFrance is asserting that parents are sharing too much of their children’s lives online; she effectively conveys this with her use of rhetorical devices and real life scenarios. More often than one would think, young children’s identities are stolen online. A lot of the time parents do not even realize that their sharing can be dangerous, says Stacy Steinberg, one of the many
Before a child is even born, he or she could be given an online persona from their parents. LaFrance says this can “pose a threat” to a child’s developing identity. A parent typically wants their kid to always be themselves and would likely be shocked by this. She also uses a rhetorical question to pose the argument in question directly to the parents, stating, “There are three children in the photo, none of whom can opt out of the digital footprint their family has now established for them. Is that fair to the kids?” The photo is a Christmas card that went viral online, but not in the way one would want. It went viral not for being cute but for being sexist. Obviously, the parents did not mean for the photo to seem sexist, but now the innocent children in the picture, are known for being sexist and will always have that “digital footprint.” Situations such as these are two of the many that LaFrance uses pathos in order to emit emotion from her