I know a lot of people who are up in arms over the most recent Terms of Service modifications on Facebook because they worry about not having ownership over content that is uploaded online.  While it’s a relevant conversation to today’s Internet world, I can’t help but look ahead towards future Internet users who have no say in the matter at all.

The Digital Parent’s Dilemma

There are times when I see pieces of user-generated content floating around my timeline – Flickr photos of families, Saturday soccer games, Twitpics of birthday parites, Qik videos of toddlers running around in their diapers.  All the while, I keep thinking about the kids being documented and I just tell myself, “Thank goodness my parents didn’t have access to this stuff when I was three.”

There are betamax videos of myself taken when I was little that will never be on Youtube. There are awkward school photos of myself that will only ever be displayed on my family’s fireplace mantle.  Lucky for me, I became an adult before the Internet gave rise to the social web.  Consequently, I always had the ability to choose when I would create an online presence for myself and what that would consist of.

For many children of the digital age, they simply won’t have the choice.

Parental Terms of Service in a Web 2.0 World

As the child of a digital immigrant, you are subject to the following Terms and Conditions (upon birth):

“You hereby grant your parents an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), content featuring you.  This content may be (i) Posted on or in connection with the websites and social networks that will (a) enable other users to post on other properties and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the services or the promotion thereof.

[modified from Facebook's new terms of service]

Realistically, I don’t think many kids will care when they see that they’re Google-able before age five, but this raises important questions regarding the future of parenting and privacy.  Is it okay for parents to share their kids online without their consent?  I know tons of parents who have already made this choice (some even pick baby names based on domain name availability) and I often question whether kids will grow up feeling a little bit violated.  I went through my phases of teen angst in middle school and I can only imagine what kind of backlash parents are going to feel when their teens come locked and loaded with statements like, “You put me on Youtube and my friends found the video! I hate you!”

With sites like baveo and totspot, which both offer social features for expecting parents, the rise of the digital fetus is certainly upon us. Hopefully for parents, it won’t mean the rise of the angry teen.

Are you a digital parent? If so, how do you decide what goes up on the web and what doesn’t?

Mozilla’s Download Day initiative is a true example of killer social media marketing. The site SpreadFireFox.com has an easy-to-navigate layout and clearly invites visitors to be part of a greater *community* initiative.  It’s not a team of employees who are making it happen; it’s an entire web community who believe in their product.

What they did right:

• Incorporated dynamic content on their main page. Successful websites today need to take on a life of their own.  This is done by the community or site visitors who act like oxygen, breathing air into a site with their content and conversation.   On sharefirefox.com, there are elements like a forum, live comments, and a photo stream that reflect this.
• Initiated and engaged in community-based conversation. The creation of a forum completely invites users to talk amongst each other as well as interact with actual peeps from FF.  Props to the Mozilla team for having the sense to be responsive to the discourse and maintain a fairly updated FAQ.
• Invited users to help. The beauty of social media marketing is that once you give users the tools, they go out and do all the legwork.  Check out all the ways Firefox users could help spread the word about download day: Host in-person download day parties, share on sites like facebook, bebo, and myspace, and post badges onto blogs via affiliate codes. They even created a Twitter account! I predict we’re totally going to set the world record as a result of these efforts.  I’m ecstatic because I am such a FF fangirl.  Some folks like IE, but every time I engage in a conversation about the better web browser, I liken the conversation to arguments I had in Middle School:

12 Year-Old Alexa’s Conversation

Me: “Nsync is so the better boyband.”

Random teenybopper: “Nu-uh. Like, Backstreet Boys ALL THE WAY!”

Me: “Who’s your favorite member?”

Random teenybopper: “Nick Carter”

Me: “We can’t be friends.”

21 Year-Old Alexa’s Conversation:

Me: “Firefox is SO the better web browser.”

Random person: “Nu-uh.  IE FTW!”

Me: “No way. What version are you running?”

Random geek: “IE6.”

Me: “We can’t be friends.”

(Seriously IE6 folk… Why?! I can’t believe I’ve evolved into this big of a geekette that I’m blogging about a web browser, even worse that I’m comparing web browsers to boy bands, but that’s me.

A few notes about the browser itself: I’ve used FF3 on both Windows (Vista and XP) and right now on my Mac.  Surfing the web is fast and friendly.  Little nuances make the entire experience better, like the way url’s are cached as well as the cute little star in the address bar that serves as a bookmark icon. All my extensions are upgraded and work fine (web developer, tiny url, piclens, bettergmail, delicious, etc.).

If you haven’t downloaded FF3 already, DO EEET!!!!  If not for the browser features, do it because Mozilla’s marketing efforts should be rewarded! Oh, and also because FF3 totally gives new meaning to the Justin Timberlake song, “SexyBack“:

I researched on various Mac forums for a solution and went down to the Apple store on 14th street. My logic board is hopeless and there’s a sibling error on my harddrive. Apparantly the crazy dent I have on the lower casing voids my warranty and 3 year apple care so I’m looking at a price tag of $1240 to have my baby fixed.

It was impossible to stop the tears from welling up in the store. I was having one of those dilirious episodes in my head too where I imagined that the guy really meant $12.40. I went to Tekserve for a second opinion and they gave me an option that still resulted in sending my laptop back to Apple.

I am frustrated beyond belief. I’m currently working on an Acer laptop running Vista and I pretty much want to shoot myself in the face. At this point, I don’t know whether I should just buy a new MacBook, invest in the MacBook Pro repair, or even buy a new MacBook.

My parents think it’s silly to invest in another Apple product, but I’m convinced that once you go Mac, you never go back.