‘Sharenting’ i.e, where parents share personal information about their children on social media, is putting the latter at risk, reveals a study on online fraud and identity theft conducted by Barclays Bank, UK. According to the study, parents are compromising their children’s future financial security with too much online sharing. Barclays Bank forecasts that by 2030, sharenting could result in almost £670 million in online fraud.
The study warns that parents might be “lulled into a false sense of security” and fail to realise they are making their children “fraud targets,” by publishing too much personal information online. Among the sensitive information shared by parents: names, ages, places and dates of births of children, home addresses, mother’s maiden name, schools, the names of pets, etc. Barclays warns that such details, which will still be available when young children become adults, could be used for fraudulent loans, credit card transactions and other online scams.