Ed Sheeran's Right – Performative Parenting Isn't Worth Your Kid's Digital Privacy
Ed Sheeran is having a bit of a moment right now.
He recently played a free gig in King's Cross after going viral for calling his resurgence a 'recession indicator'; and yesterday, hit podcast Call Her Daddy aired their Ed-pisode too.
During his appearance, Ed mentioned his wife (Cherry Seaborn) and their two little girls (Lyra Antarctica and Jupiter).
That left some commenters surprised, with one TikToker writing: 'ED SHEERAN IS A FATHER??? How long did I sleep?'.
Ed Sheeran took umbrage against a comment which read 'He doesn't spend enough time with his family, he literally could go do/take his children anywhere but chooses to be away from them.'
'Orrr I just don't post them on social media...' the singer replied.
Another X post showed what seemed to be a screenshot of the pop star's comment, which read: 'I don't post them on social media because they deserve to be in control of their privacy.
'Just because you don't see something on the internet doesn't mean it doesn't exist.'
CLOCK THEM ED pic.twitter.com/j59DeNqjV9
— tasha louise 💗 (@eds_afterglow) April 9, 2025
Experts back him up.
In 2018, the UK Children's Commissioner released a report called Who Knows About Me? which found that by the time most kids turned 13, their parents had posted roughly 1300 photos and videos of them online.
The report reads: 'We need to stop and think about what this means for children's lives now and how it may impact on their future lives as adults.
'We simply do not know what the consequences of all this information about our children will be. In the light of this uncertainty, should we be happy to continue forever collecting and sharing children's data?'
A 2022 paper found that 'sharenting', or posting pictures and other content of your children online, can harm their safety, privacy, and even lead some parents to make an unfair profit off their children in an unregulated market.
Recent Disney+ Show Devil In The Family: The Fall Of Ruby Franke highlighted perhaps the most extreme and horrific case of child abuse aided in part by their online presence.
Ruby Franke, who was sentenced for child abuse, created the hugely successful family advice vlog 8 Passengers.
A 2023 paper found that those with sharenting syndrome – an obsession with and even addiction to posting your children online – 'could result in neglect and abuse, and it could lead to children's images being used on inappropriate sites.'
And considering Ed Sheeran's huge platform, we reckon hid children will be glad he refused to share their image online (even if some commenters on TikTok are not).
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