Andra Siibak wrote about digital parenting and the datafied child

Our researcher Andra Siibak published a chapter in the book "Educating 21st Century Children. Emotional well-being in the digital age".  

Many parents of today are feeling increasingly concerned not only for the well-being and safety of their children, but also for their own abilities to take up the role of a “good” and “responsible” parent. Empirical research evidence is used in the chapter to illustrate how the data religion cultivated by tech industry, popular press, marketing discourses and general societal expectations of a “responsible parent” have created a norm for plugged‑in parenting resulting in intimate dataveillance of children, both in online and offline contexts. Various digital parenting tools – from pregnancy apps and baby monitors to parental controls and tracking devices – and practices – such as sharenting – are used in the chapter to illustrate how the issues related to the digital rights and privacy of the child are almost entirely discarded against the overprotective and technologically moderated parenting stance leading to both commodification as well as datafication of childhood.

Andra Siibak’s contribution explores digital parenting and the datafied child. The chapter reviews digital parenting practices, beginning at the earliest stages with fertility and pregnancy apps and continuing through early childhood with the use of mobile applications and baby monitors to ease parental anxiety. The example of sharenting (i.e. the parental practice of sharing information and photos about one’s children on social media) is provided to suggest that such digital parenting practices not only jeopardise children’s rights and privacy, but they can also lead to negative outcomes affecting both the parent-child relationship as well as the well-being of the child.

Read more: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/educating-21st-century-children_b7f33425-en