The geek in me thinks this is awesome. I checked last night and verified that the name we are leaning towards for our new baby girl is available as a domain and Gmail account. I did not secure either, just checked it out.
The article mentions the importance of an online identity as one of the reasons some parents elect to secure a domain name, e-mail or both for their new little people. I get that, and would toss in professional concerns as well. My husband is an artist and his Web site is his name. It makes it easier professionally than having to explain why his resume is posted at insertcrazynamehere.com.
But the cautious blossoming parent in me considers the downfalls. I’m not sure I want my young child to have a recognizable online identity on Facebook, MySpace or her own Web site. I realize these things are going to happen, but not for a few more years. So in the meantime I’m just sitting on a domain name.
And as the article states, “An easy-to-remember domain also makes a child easier for strangers to find. Chances are one only needs to know a child’s name and add ‘.com.’”
That’s a good point, too.
Yes, the domain’s owner can remain anonymous (also in the article), so I guess the issue is the creepy factor. Who’s looking at my kid’s Web site?
Maybe the answer is not to post my child’s photos on her Web site and turn the URL over to her at a much later date. The site can remain blank until she’s 23 or so, right? There may be a need to use if before her early 20s, but hopefully by then I’ll have more parenting skills and will figure out how best to proceed.
Snatching up an email account in her name doesn’t bother me as much as I am sure she will need e-mail in elementary school. I just hope that spam filters impove dramatically in the coming years, otherwise I’ll have to check her e-mail for her regardless of the name on the account.
And in the meantime, I can just post her photos and information in this blog, in my LiveJournal and on my family’s Web site.
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