84% Of Under-Twos Have A Digital Presence

A common parental complaint is that kids have no appreciation for the potential impact of sharing information online, but we’re hardly setting them a good example. A study of parents shows that we’re all too keen to post details of our kids online, often even before they are born.

According to the study, conducted by online security vendor, 84% of Australians have uploaded pictures of a child under the age of two somewhere on the Internet. (The figures in the graphic above represent the global totals from the same study.) While much of this sharing takes place via social networks such as Facebook, it’s long been evident that people have a false sense of privacy when using Facebook, and no realisation of how lax its internal security actually is.

Rather fewer parents go beyond those boundaries: just 26% have uploaded prenatal scans, and only 7% have an email address for their child. While there’s no denying that social networking tools and photo sites can be a great way of sharing the family experience, be sure you’re setting a good example and not setting up your child for future humiliation or strange questions in job interviews. Check our guide to privacy tweaks to make sure you’re taking the right approach.