Book contents
- Donor-Linked Families in the Digital Age
- Donor-Linked Families in the Digital Age
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Donor-Conceived Families
- Part I ‘DIY’ Donor Linking: Issues and Implications
- Chapter 1 Accessing Origins Information
- Chapter 2 Recipient Parents Using Do-It-Yourself Methods to Make Early Contact with Donor Relatives
- Chapter 3 Donor-Linked Families Connecting through Social Media
- Chapter 4 The Contact Expectations of Australian Sperm Donors Who Connect with Recipients via Online Platforms
- Chapter 5 Parents’ and Offsprings’ Experience of Insemination Fraud
- Part II Children’s and Adults’ Lived Experiences in Diverse Donor-Linked Families
- Part III Institutionalised Resistance to Openness
- Index
- References
Chapter 3 - Donor-Linked Families Connecting through Social Media
Creeping and Contact on Facebook
from Part I - ‘DIY’ Donor Linking: Issues and Implications
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 July 2023
Book contents
- Donor-Linked Families in the Digital Age
- Donor-Linked Families in the Digital Age
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Donor-Conceived Families
- Part I ‘DIY’ Donor Linking: Issues and Implications
- Chapter 1 Accessing Origins Information
- Chapter 2 Recipient Parents Using Do-It-Yourself Methods to Make Early Contact with Donor Relatives
- Chapter 3 Donor-Linked Families Connecting through Social Media
- Chapter 4 The Contact Expectations of Australian Sperm Donors Who Connect with Recipients via Online Platforms
- Chapter 5 Parents’ and Offsprings’ Experience of Insemination Fraud
- Part II Children’s and Adults’ Lived Experiences in Diverse Donor-Linked Families
- Part III Institutionalised Resistance to Openness
- Index
- References
Summary
Curiosity and a desire for medical history often motivate donor-conceived people to search for their donor or other donor relatives. Social-media platforms offer donor-conceived people and their donors opportunities to search for genetic relatives. This chapter takes an in-depth look at how Facebook was used as a search and surveillance tool by the Australian participants in our national study of donor-conceived adults, recipient parents and donors, including their views about acceptable and more controversial uses of the platform. We argue that the affordances of Facebook and the developing cultures of use by members of the donor-conception communities normalise online surveillance of donor relatives. Our research demonstrates how easy it is to find and watch genetically connected others without knowledge or explicit consent. Our research raises questions about how the concept of contact should be understood in the digital age as donor-conceived people and donors navigate virtual boundaries across social-media platforms.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Donor-Linked Families in the Digital AgeRelatedness and Regulation, pp. 49 - 66Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
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