A rising trend from parents in the United States is the conscious effort to keep the pictures, names, and practically the entire identities of their children off the Internet.
The trend comes at a time when other parents, along with grandparents and other relatives, are intent on posting and documenting the early years of children on social media websites.
"I just have a vague discomfort having her photograph out there for anyone to look at," said Sonia Rao, referring to her 1-year-old child. "When you meet a new person and go to their account, you can look them up, look at photos, videos, know that they are traveling."
Rao and a growing group of parents are going against the trend of posting a child's baby pictures and milestones such as first steps and first day out by deciding not to release such pictures online.
Parents have different reasons for such a decision. Some parents are concerned about the safety and privacy of their children, while others are more worried about the things that companies could do with the picture and information of their child.
Some parents, however, simply respect the autonomy of their children, as they wait for them to be aware enough to decide whether they want their pictures online or not.
Rao said that she is very active on Facebook and Instagram, with pictures of her dog from before her baby was born. While she has no qualms of posting pictures of her dog, she refrains from posting pictures of her dog with her baby together, no matter how cute the image is. She shares pictures of her baby, but only to relatives and close friends through text and e-mail.
Scott Steinberg, based in St. Louis, is another parent that is doing the same thing as Rao is.
"If I don't want somebody to know about my child, to take an active interest in them, to recognize them in a city street or as they are leaving the schoolyard, the easiest way to do that is to not have any identifying information out about them," Steinberg said.
Parents that wish to participate in the trend of limiting the number of people that can see pictures and information of their children can do so by adjusting privacy settings on their social media accounts. In Facebook, for example, users can choose to share status updates, pictures and other content only to "friends" or to the "public" by choosing the option on the right tab of the post. Parents can also create customized lists to which they can share their children's pictures.
