Study shows 81% of babies have 'online footprint'
A study published AGF shows 81% of babies have 'online footprint.'
81% of babies have some type of 'digital footprint' by the time they are two years old, according to a recent study by AVG.
Here's what AVG's article had to say:
"This 'digital dossier' will probably consist of photos and videos of childhood memories shared by our parents, family and friends. In many cases this will actually happen within days of their birth, by the time they are two they will almost certainly have images and other information posted online. That online history will be built upon and will follow them around for their whole life.
This is confirmed by a study we've just carried out where we polled mothers with Internet access who have children under two in the five major EU States (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain), the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. We asked them when they uploaded pictures of their children and what motivated them to do so.
Here is what we've found:
1 - The average age at which a child acquires an online presence courtesy of their parents is at six months, and by the time they are two, 81% of children have some kind of ‘digital footprint’.
2 - A third (33%) of children have had images posted online from birth.
3 - A quarter (23%) of children have even had their pre-birth scans uploaded to the Internet by their parents.
4 - Seven per cent (7%) of babies have even had an e-mail address created for them by their parents.
5 - More than 70% of mothers said they posted baby and toddler images online to share with friends and family.
Sure, it's common for parents to post photos of their children on Facebook. But is it too far to create their own Facebook page, Twitter feed, or e-mail address?
What do parents do once their child is old enough to manage their own Facebook page? Do they pass off the page you already created to them? Do they delete that page and let their children start their own, new page?
And what about Facebook friend requests? Are newborn babies' really friends with their mother's college roommate? But then again, who really is friends with all of their Facebook friends anyway?
