The Concept of Sharenting and Evaluation within the Scope of Custody Rights

Abstract

harenting is a concept named after words from parenting and share in English. It refers parents who share their childrens’ image, photo or experiences on social media. Researches are shown that even though parents aware of the fact that sharing their children on social media may give damage in some way, they can not keep themselves back. Parents habit of sharing brings up the issue that whether this is abuse of parental right. The right of custody is regulated in the Turkish Civil Code (TMK) covering all the rights and authorisation for the care and protection of the children's personality and property. According to the provisions of both international and national legislation, the best interests of the child should always be considered when using the right of custody. When it comes to sharing the child on social media, the freedom of expression of the parents and the child's personality right and best interests come into conflict. According to both the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the provisions of the Constitution, the freedom of expression of the parents may be limited in this context, since the child's best interests are at stake. Another view of social media shares is that they are made with commercial concerns. If parents share their children on social media in order to earn money, for example, they publish a video of their child using shampoo and earn money from it, then the child is actually put to work.

At this point, along with the UNCRC and the Constitution, the provisions of the Labor Law come into play and the situation becomes illegal. In these days when a message once uploaded to the internet takes seconds to spread and is almost impossible to delete, parents should not share their children on social media, especially for commercial purposes. In case the posts made violate the personality rights of the child, the cases that protect the personality rights regulated by the TMK can be brought by the child against the mother and/or father through the trustee. Within the scope of this case, the judge may decide to restrict or prohibit the mother and/or father from sharing, to return the income obtained from the shares, and even to limit the right of custody.