This Note proposes a new framework for defining and differentiating between “sharenting” and the actions of family influencers. Sharenting refers to parents and guardians who post content about their children on social media platforms. The legal field currently views parents posting about their children on social media as conduct protected by both the parents’ liberty interests under the Fourteenth Amendment and as a freedom of speech issue protected by the First Amendment. However, the actions of family influencers go beyond the definition of sharenting in terms of the amount of content posted and the harms produced by said posts. As such, family influencing should be viewed within a separate sphere of conduct where the privacy interests of children allow for more state intervention than what has previously been considered acceptable.
While the privacy interest of children has not been largely expounded upon in the legal field, this Note argues that a few Supreme Court cases have laid the foundation for the recognition of such interests. Should the law build upon this foundation, a new balance should be struck between the independent rights of children and the rights of their parents. This new balance would allow states to better address the harms of the evolving digital landscape and the gaps in First Amendment jurisprudence.
Author
J.D. Candidate, 2025, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law; M.A.M.C., University of Florida. Thank you to the Northwestern University Law Review Online team for their work and dedication in getting this piece to publication. A special thank you to my friends and family for being my sounding boards, cheerleaders, and greatest joy for the past three years.
Copyright 2025 by Taylor Lockett
Cite as: Taylor Lockett, Smile for the Camera: Balancing Parental Rights and Children’s Privacy in the Age of Family Influencers, 119 Nw. U. L. Rev. Online 355 (2025), https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1355&context=nulr_online.