Social networking goes mad – Facebook and MySpace for babies?

I’m a huge fan of social networking, loving the opportunities it gives me to interact with friends online, make new contacts, and keep in touch with people who I wouldn’t otherwise be able to. But I’m 31 years of age, and am able to control my own online persona. Which is why I find the idea of social networks for babies an utterly bizarre and contemptible one.

I’m not a parent, and likely never will be. Children are okay, but I’m more than happy with looking after my 6 month old cat thank you very much. So maybe I just don’t get the appeal of joining one of the new social networks for babies that are springing up all over the Internet.

The New York Times has an article about these new social networks, of which Totspot, Lil’Grams, and Kidmondo are the best known. Just to be clear on this, these aren’t social networks designed for parents to share information about their kids, you can already do that on MySpace and Facebook after all, but are intended to actually be for the babies to have an online presence.

I’m not stupid, I know the parents are the ones creating the online profiles and updating the sites with the minutiae of their children’s lives. But they are doing it from the point of view of the infants, creating a voice for their gurgling bundle of joy, and helping him or her connect with other babies.

Have I gone mad? Is this merely a figment of my imagination? I just cannot fathom the logic of this trend for baby social networking. Babies cannot talk, cannot think for themselves, cannot do anything without some assistance from an adult for the first year or so of their lives. So what possible reason would a baby want a social networking page?

The only conclusion I can draw from this is that these parents are struggling to actually connect with their babies in any real sense and so are turning to the Web to fulfil that part of the experience. Surely it would be better to actually spend some quality time with your newborn than blogging about him or her on the Internet.

There is also the issue of privacy rights for children who have a profile page created on one of these sites by their well-meaning (but ultimately deluded) parents. They didn’t ask for details of when, where, and what colour their latest poo was to be broadcast to all and sundry on the Web. And I’m not sure they’ll appreciate it when they get older and realise how their lives were catalogued online for everyone to see.

Call me old, call me a baby hater, but I’m neither of these. And nor am I someone who fails to see the appeal of social networking. But social networking for babies who are too young to even know what day of the week it is – that is just beyond my level of understanding.

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