Chapter Preview: Birth to Age 2 – First Footprints

When your baby is on the way, their privacy and digital security is probably the last thing you have on your mind. At least it’s way down there on the list—of course it is! You’re preparing for a bright, joyous addition to your family and home. Everything you’re doing is intended to create an environment that is safe and comfortable, so your baby knows a warm and loving world right from the start. Not to mention, you and your family are anticipating how much you’ll enjoy these milestones.

Part of the enjoyment includes sharing these moments, which is mainly done online these days. (When’s the last time you took a picture on film and had it printed?) From digital invitations, to baby showers, and ultrasound pictures posted on social media—the weeks and months leading up to birth are a celebration as well. And that’s where your baby’s data lake gets its initial drops. Your posts on social media make up the first little digital streams feeding their data lake, along with anything else you share about them online.

When my children were babies we spent a lot of time “baby proofing” the house. You know, putting special locks on the kitchen cabinets, plastic covers on electrical outlets, baby gates, and more. Today that behavior needs to extend online. We need to be the guardians of our baby’s privacy, identity, and security until they get to the age where they understand what’s at risk and can protect themselves.

No doubt you will want to share all those precious moments as your bundle of joy fills your life with happiness, despite the possible risks. With that in mind, there’s an entire chapter in “Is Your Digital Front Door Unlocked?” dedicated to your baby’s first steps online, offering suggestions on what constitutes a healthy balance of what should and should not be shared. It also looks at other important considerations that you may not have thought of, such as getting your baby a Web address and monitoring their identity to make sure an identify thief hasn’t hijacked it—plenty of things many parents wouldn’t think of, but should, given the way our world works today.

Gary Davis’ book, Is Your Digital Front Door Unlocked?, is available September 5, 2019 and can be ordered at amazon.com.

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