Evaluation of Child Picture Sharing in Social Media by Parents with Respect to Privacy Violation and Child Abuse

Social media is a new social sharing environment that consists of a variety of information, documents, photos, and images that are mostly produced by individuals. In these social sharing networks, especially the sharing of information and images by parents of their children has created a new dimension of discussion in terms of violation of child privacy and similar risks. In this article, different perspectives have been analyzed; the attitudes and approaches of experts, parents, and society have been put forward. The aim of this study is to evaluate the social media sharing within the framework of the concepts of privacy and abuse and to present suggestions for parents to use social media consciously. Hereby, three different types of research have done in this study. In the first study, a total of 100 parents, 50 bloggers, and 50 celebrities, who actively share in social media, were selected as a sample and statistical data were obtained to determine the proportions of children's photographs and the content of childhood photographs. In the second study, in order to examine the dimensions of the incident, especially in the context of our country, a case which has reflected to media and the court (the accusation of abuse by Nihan Kayal？oglu’s husband) has been studied according to case study method, and perspectives of media and the society has been evaluated. In the third study, in order to determine their attitudes about social media sharing individuals that participated in the various regions of Turkey, 850 people survey was conducted. The results of data were analyzed according to the risks of sharing children's photos on social media. As a result of the researches, it has been determined that parents who reach audiences in social media share their children 's photos in their sharing and parents who share their children' s photographs actively use advertising content. In this study, while the risks of child abuse and invasion of privacy, that may be caused by sharing child photos and special pieces of information about children on social media have been determined, existing situation in the world and Turkey has been revealed