Findings from the Childhood, Intimacy and Surveillance Practices (CHiP), a research project conducted by researchers at CENSUS, have revealed that parents actively reflect upon future uses of the photos they take of their children. Parents in our study took into consideration how the photos they shared of their children on social media might be discovered by their child, or others, many years later. This impacted what they chose to share, as well as what platforms they shared it on and what audience they shared it with.

We also found parents considered the future of the digital photographs of their children with regards to how they stored them. Smartphone photography has made taking family photographs much easier and many parents seek to preserve these memories for their children. At the same time, many found that digital photographs were spread across multiple devices or platforms, and the lack of physical copies made them feel less secure.

Further findings about photo sharing from the project will be published in our forthcoming book chapter.