Internet security company AVG just released worrying statistics related to the prevalence of baby pics on social networking sites (cough* cough* Facebook! cough*).
We say “worrying” because the newborn (and even yet-to-be-born) generation now has the potential to have the largest digital footprint yet. While your average 30, 40, 50 year-old social networking enthusiast has only been leaving a trail of personal info online for several years to a decade, them baies are being set up for a life that unravels on the web.
Here are the official findings from the report:
“Almost a quarter (23%) of children begin their digital lives when parents upload their prenatal sonogram scans to the Internet. This figure is higher in the US, where 34 percent have posted sonograms online, while in Canada the figure is even higher at 37 percent. Fewer parents share sonograms of their children in France (13%), Italy (14%) and Germany (15%). Likewise only 14 percent of parents share these online in Japan.
And herein is the problem. Ignoring the motivations of over excited mummies, putting that much personal information online may become problematic in the future (er, identity theft anyone?).
AVG concluded on a rather mild note though:
“What kind of footprint do you actually want to start for your child, and what will they think about the information you’ve uploaded in future?”
So the moral of the story is, ladies and gentlemen, please mind those privacy settings.
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