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?