AVG: Children have online presence before birth
AVG’s global survey discovered that parents are building their child’s online presence even before they are born. Almost a quarter (23%) of parents upload images of their first scan.
On arrival into the world, some babies (7%) will find they already have an email address (7%) and 5% will have a social network profile. By the age of two, 81% of children will have some kind of digital footprint.
When asked what motivated them to share images of their children online, more than 70% of all parents surveyed said it was to share them with friends and family. Some said they uploaded images of their children to bolster the content of their own social network profiles.
“It’s shocking to think that a 30 year old has an online footprint stretching back 10 -15 years at most, while the vast majority of children today will have online presence by the time they are two years old – a presence that will continue to build throughout their whole lives,” said JR Smith, CEO of AVG.
AVG urged parents to be aware of their privacy settings on all websites where images and information about their children are shared – including the likes of YouTube and Flickr.