We’ve all gooed and giggled at posted baby pictures on the internet. Some argue that parents have no right to post these photos, no matter how adorable, because it violates the child’s rights to create their own social media identity. Celebrity parents, Jenna Wolfe and Stephanie Gosk, have even gone as far as to create Twitter profiles for their children.

In today’s world an online identity is as important as your physical identity. Even if you walk in an interview covered from head to toe, you could still not be hired, because of a picture of you half-naked on a yacht with a bottle of vodka the employer found online. With online identity playing such an important role in the lives of this generation, it cannot be taken lightly.

To be clear, I am not saying that parents should be ignorant of what their children are doing online and should have no access. Parents should know whether their children are twerk stars or the next singing sensation. But there is a distinction between knowing what your child is doing and controlling what your child is doing.

When a parent monitors a child, the parent allows the child to be him or herself with certain restraints. When a parent controls a child, the parent is assuming the identity of the child. It is reasonable to think that a parent should be the first to begin their child’s online identity, because parents are supposed to know their children and want the best for them. But what parents who make social media accounts are really doing is living through their children.

It may be “cute” to a parent to post pictures of their child dressed up as a clown for Halloween or post a status about having had one too many bottles, but when that child finally logs onto Facebook or Twitter, which will probably happen once they say their first word, they may be mortified and humiliated.

I personally, would not get upset about my mother posting my baby pictures, because let’s face it, I was really cute, but Wolfe and Gosk have taken their fondness of their children to an extreme. It may seem harmless to have va social media account for a child. In fact, parents who do this probably think that they are Parent of the Year, for taking charge in their children’s online identity.

What these parents fail to realize is that not only are they stripping away their children’s rights to a more creative Twitter handle, but they are also violating their basic rights as a person. Just because a parent has the right to tell their children when to eat, when to sleep, where to sleep, and so on, that does not give parents the right to dictate their online identity. 

Children only have one online identity. They are perfectly capable of annoying their Facebook friends with statuses about nothing important without help from mommy.