The Atlantic – Taylor Lorenz on what happens When Kids Realize Their Whole Life Is Already Online- Googling yourself has become a rite of passage. “Almost a quarter of children begin their digital lives when parents upload their prenatal sonogram scans to the internet [and] 92 percent of toddlers under the age of 2 already have their own unique digital identity.”

But it’s not just overzealous mommy bloggers who construct a child’s online identity; plenty of average parents do the same. There’s even a portmanteau for it: sharenting. Almost a quarter of children begin their digital lives when parents upload their prenatal sonogram scans to the internet, according to a study conducted by the internet-security firm AVG. The study also found that 92 percent of toddlers under the age of 2 already have their own unique digital identity. “Parents now shape their children’s digital identity long before these young people open their first email. The disclosures parents make online are sure to follow their children into adulthood,” declares a report by the University of Florida Levin College of Law. “These parents act as both gatekeepers of their children’s personal information and as narrators of their children’s personal stories.”…