Does your child have a digital footprint?
If you are an active member of Facebook®, it is likely one of your online friends has posted the good news of an upcoming pregnancy. Over the nine-month gestation, you might see the first ultrasound of the peanut-looking fetus, followed by the six-month ultrasound declaring, “It’s a boy!” Even from a thousand miles away, you can view immediate pictures of the child’s birth, and snapshots from holidays, birthdays and other life events. In many of these pictures, this youngster is accompanied by friends and family of a similar age, and even their parents might be tagged in the picture.
Pre-birth footprints
Before children are even born, they are developing a digital footprint online. As parents post pictures and daily anecdotes using social networking sites, the identity of these children, including name and location, are turning up on major search engines.
If you are concerned about limiting your child’s digital footprint, begin by examining your security settings on social networking sites. Research the security options on these sites and set the privacy options to the highest possible setting. For those who have “friended” unknown persons for online gaming, such as Facebook’s Farmville or Mafia Wars, you can create filters so these unknown friends cannot view your Facebook wall, information or photos. Another step for safeguarding the identity of your children is to not list their full name anywhere on your social networking page, or even refer to them in a “Wall” post.
Sources for digital footprints
Beyond social networking, your child can now establish a digital footprint by participating in normal activities. If your child is featured in a photograph published by a newspaper, their name could appear in a number of major search engines linking their name to the viewable picture. One newspaper item most parents do not consider is the publishing of obituaries. When a loving grandparent passes, families often include the names of surviving children and grandchildren. Additionally, school activities, such as running club results, wrestling meets or soccer championships could result in your child’s name appearing on various websites and, eventually, within search engines.
To check whether your child has a digital footprint, type his or her name into common search engines such as Google™, Yahoo® or Bing™. You might be surprised that the recreational race your child participated in last year listed all of the entries and race results by full name, age, gender and even the school they attend.
Communicating about online activity
As your children grow older and enter pre-teen years, they will likely create their own profiles online. This may include social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter®, or even photo sharing sites like Flickr™. Before surrendering computer time to a pre-teen, be certain to discuss the implications of expanding their digital footprint. Your kids should understand that any time they interact online with their legal name, either by posting on a friend’s Facebook page or commenting on a Flickr photograph, they are leaving a digital footprint. Furthermore, once these digital footprints are engraved in the memory of the Internet, any inappropriate comments or photos will be available for years. This means potential colleges or job recruiters can trace the identity and actions of your child from the moment they created their first blog or appeared on Facebook.
Although parents love to share pictures of their smiling babies and charismatic children, keep in mind your actions could be creating a digital footprint of your child. By examining your own online activity, and discussing the potential security and privacy risks with your children when they begin using the Internet, you could reduce their digital footprint and keep their identity private a few more years.
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