Claire Bessant

Claire Bessant is a socio-legal scholar and Associate Professor in Law at Northumbria University.

Claire’s research explores the impact of technology upon children’s privacy. She has written extensively on the sharing of children’s images on social media, both by schools and by parents. Her research on sharing children’s images underpins a Being Human Festival exhibition and storytelling events taking place in November 2024. Her research also explores academic and parental conceptions of family privacy, considering how family privacy ideology can be understood to protect the contemporary family from intrusions by state and society. Claire’s research on family privacy and family autonomy has been used to provide new perspectives to the academic debates regarding children and online harms. Claire also draws upon her work on family privacy, and particularly upon the notion of parents as privacy stewards, in her work on sharenting and children’s datafication.

Claire’s focus as a CONNECTED by DATA Fellow will be upon the datafication of children and families, particularly by the education and health sectors.

For more information about her publications please visit her university profile.