Did You Know 92% of Toddlers Are Online!

Baby on Laptop Computer92% of US Toddlers have Online Presence!

The Internet security firm AVG, recently released a study of 2,200 mothers across the revealed that 81% of children 2 years or younger have some form of online presence! How much has the internet grown that 4 out of 5 kids are online so early on in their life. Online presence could mean anything from an uploaded video of their child, some photos up on the web, or in some cases a full profile on a social networking site.

Some Quick Statistics:

  • 81% of children have online presence before the age of two.
  • 92% of US children
  • 73% of European children

23% of have an online presence BEFORE THEY ARE BORN

Wait What? That is right. 23% of parents share images from their prenatal sonograms on the web. In the US, this jumps to 33% of parents. This means the children are on the web before they are born!

% of Children with Sonograms Online

  • 37% in Canada
  • 33% in US
  • 14% in Western Europe
  • 14% in Japan

I find it surprising Japan isn’t hire on this list considering how modern and progressive the country tends to me with technology.

What other things do babies have!

How about these statistics?

  • 7% of babies & toddlers have an e-mail address
  • 5% have their own profile on a social network

How spooky would it be when you try to open a facebook account only to discover you are already on the web. And your parents have been posting cute, embarrassing pictures of you since.. you were born?

Why Do Parents Do This?

  • 70% – Wanted to share with friends a family (understandable)
  • 22% – Wanted to expand the content on their social networking profiles (ok – I can see that)
  • 18% – Merely mimicking their peers (some things don’t change with age)

Can’t You Remove Online Photos & Information Later?

Only 3.5% expressed concern about the amount of information that would be available about their children in future years…

Well consider this- most 30 year olds have an online footprint stretching back 10 to 15 years. That is amazing in itself, but these children will have an online footprint – for a longer time then they have lived!

Will all the information that are posted be available in the future years as the few 3.5% parents were concerned about? I’ll solve the mystery right now. YES. Once content goes on the web, it’s pretty much there forever, no matter what you try to take it away. It is very important for parents to think carefully about what kind of information they will be sharing about their children online. It will follow them for the rest of their life. Anyone can see it. Friends? Job Hiring Managers? If they ever become politicians or someone high profile – all of it will be publicly available.

  • What are your thoughts?
  • How much presence does your children have?

Take the poll below, and give us your thoughts in the comments!
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