Welcome to the world of sharenting. The lure of social media is pulling in atleast one adult family member who is falling prey to oversharing photos of their children on social media. When the queen of pop, Madonna’s son Rocco Ritchie (15) reportedly blocked his mom on instagram (he has 140,000 followers), there were many eyebrows raised. If rumour mills are to be believed, after the holiday season, the Rebel Hearts singer posted a photo of her son on her Instagram page which triggered Rocco to block her from seeing any of his posts. But this isn’t the first time. Recently, another Australian woman Jade Ruthven got flak on her social media for sharenting. And understandably so; sometimes posting baby photographs of your kid covered in food or holiday photographs can have adverse effects.
Many teenagers have reportedly blocked their parents on Facebook, rejected friend requests and de-tagged themselves from family photos. Aviva Bidapa, model states, “I don’t believe in sharing anything with the public that I can’t share with my parents. People need to learn to leave social media online and not post anything they will later regret as once online, the world will see it, especially if you’re in the limelight.”
Miss Earth and film actor Nicole Faria agrees, “Blocking a parent can be disrespectful and traumatising for them as whatever they do is in good faith. Blocking your mom might send a wrong message to fans of Rocco and Madonnna. All she did was treat her son like a trophy. I’m friends with both my mother and my father on Facebook and follow each other on Instagram and Twitter. If I didn’t like a photo or video my parents have posted, I wouldn’t block them. I would politely request them to remove the picture.” Teenagers have their teething issues too, but parents must know to handle them!
