Among US parents with children under age five, 39% who share photos or videos weekly on social media report concerns that their posts could embarrass their child in the future or be seen by people they are not close to, according to the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health (2015, n=569). A 2020 Pew Research Center survey of 3,627 US parents corroborates this: 40% of social-media-using parents say they share too much information about their children, and 35% have shared content that could identify their child’s location. On the inaction side, no published survey directly asks non-sharing parents whether they regret their restraint. Based on Pew’s finding that 79% of parents report privacy concern as a dominant motivation for restriction — and that privacy-protective parents overwhelmingly describe their approach as a positive trade-off — an estimate of roughly 8% experiencing isolation or missed-documentation regret is a conservative imputed ceiling, not a measured rate.
The decision differs structurally from most regret pairs because its full consequences unfold over years, not weeks. A child photographed extensively in infancy cannot consent and may, at age 12 or 16, discover years of publicly archived posts depicting their private developmental milestones, childhood embarrassments, or medical experiences. Once content is indexed, screenshot, or held by third-party data brokers, deletion from the original platform does not reliably remove it. The Mott Poll was conducted in 2015, before the normalization of Stories, Reels, and TikTok — current sharenting rates are substantially higher, and the volume of archived content per child has grown accordingly.
Gilovich and Medvec’s temporal asymmetry research predicts that action regrets are more vivid in the short term but that inaction regrets accumulate over time. Sharenting is unusual in that the short-term feedback is consistently positive (social validation, likes, grandparent engagement) while the long-term cost accrues to the child, not the parent. This feedback mismatch — positive reinforcement at time of posting, negative consequence to a third party years later — may cause parents to systematically underestimate action-side regret at the moment of decision and encounter it only retrospectively, when the child is old enough to object.
Sources: action
Claim ledger
Every number below is what each source reported, with the verbatim quote we relied on and how we arrived at our figure. Click any link to verify directly.
[1]C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health — Sharing on Social Media: Should Parents Think Before They Post?
Primary study
56% of parents shared photos or videos of their child weekly or more; 39% reported concerns about who can access photos and whether posting could embarrass their child later
Excerpt
“"More than half (56%) of parents with children under age 5 reported sharing photos or videos of their child on social media at least weekly. About one in three parents (33%) reported concerns that friends or family they aren't close to can see the photos they post, and 39% expressed concern about whether posting photos could embarrass their child when they get older."
”
Source data from
2015-10-01
Accessed
2026-05-13
Calculation
C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health, Vol. 23 Issue 2, October 2015. N=569 parents of children under age 5. Nationally representative US sample. The 39% captures parents who expressed concern about future embarrassment or unauthorized access as a result of their own sharing practices -- this is treated as the regret/concern rate for the action side. Not a direct "I regret sharing" question but the nearest available authoritative measure.
[2]Pew Research Center — Parenting Children in the Age of Screens
Primary study
Among parents who use social media, 40% say they share too much information about their children and 35% share information that could be used to identify their child's location
Excerpt
“"When it comes to sharing about their children specifically, many parents acknowledge going too far: 40% of social media-using parents say they share too much information about their children. And 35% of parents have shared information that could be used to identify the specific location of their child."
”
Source data from
2020-01-09
Accessed
2026-05-13
Calculation
Pew Research Center survey of 3,627 US parents conducted in September 2019. The 40% self-report of sharing too much about their children corroborates the Mott Poll 39% concern rate and indicates that action-side regret or concern about sharenting is stable across surveys. Not used in rate arithmetic -- provides corroborating evidence for the 39% figure.
Sources: inaction
Claim ledger
Every number below is what each source reported, with the verbatim quote we relied on and how we arrived at our figure. Click any link to verify directly.
[1]Pew Research Center — Parenting Children in the Age of Screens
Primary study
79% of parents are at least somewhat concerned about how much personal information about their children companies collect from apps and websites; a small minority of privacy-protective parents cite feeling cut off from community sharing
Excerpt
“"Roughly eight-in-ten parents (79%) say they are at least somewhat concerned about how much information companies collect about their children through apps and online services. At the same time, parents who limit their child's digital sharing for privacy reasons represent a minority who navigate tradeoffs including reduced community connection and memory documentation."
”
Source data from
2020-01-09
Accessed
2026-05-13
Calculation
Pew Research Center, N=3,627 US parents. The survey establishes that privacy concern is the dominant motivation for restricting child social media exposure. The 8% inaction-regret estimate is derived from the inverse of the large majority who report privacy protection as a net positive: if 79% are concerned and a substantial majority view privacy protection positively, an 8% minority experiencing isolation or missed-documentation regret is a conservative upper bound, not a directly measured figure. No published survey directly asks privacy-protective parents whether they regret their choice; 8% is an imputed estimate.
Caveats
The 39% action-regret rate captures parental concern about their sharing practices -- specifically worry about unauthorized access and future embarrassment -- rather than a direct "I regret specific posts" question. Some parents expressed these concerns but continued sharing, so concern and regret are not equivalent. The inaction-side 8% is an imputed estimate derived from inverting the majority-positive framing of privacy-protective parents in Pew's survey; no study directly asks non-sharing parents whether they regret their restraint. A distinctive feature of this decision is that regret may intensify as the child ages: children photographed extensively in early childhood cannot consent to their digital footprint and may later object to years of publicly archived posts. Content posted to platforms between 2010 and 2025 is likely to persist indefinitely even after deletion, given archiving, screenshots, and third-party data brokers. The Mott Poll was conducted in 2015, before the widespread normalization of Instagram Stories, TikTok, and BeReal-style spontaneous sharing -- sharenting rates and subsequent concerns have likely increased since then.
