[em-bee]

When parents share about their kids online, in almost all cases I can think of, they are doing it for themselves, not for the child’s benefit.

i would disagree with that claim. at least when i share photos of my children the primary benefit is for my parents, my siblings, and very close friends. it is neither for my own nor my kids benefit.

the point of facebook is to stay in touch with your friends and family, and so it encourages to share with them. i am not on facebook myself, so i don't know how easy it is to create private family/friend groups. if it is easy then it should not be a problem to share family pictures in private, but apparently this is not happening and a lot of people are sharing in public instead? do they believe that only the friends that follow them can see them? never mind the privacy issues of facebook itself.

does it make sense to post it online instead of celebrating it privately with my child or face-to-face with friends

most of my friends and family do not live in the same city as i do. so face-to-face is not an option.

instead of chastising parents for using the tools available to them to stay in touch with their family, how about creating and promoting tools that allow sharing in a private and secure manner?

[noizejoy]

Less public sharing of pictures over the Internet has been possible ever since email with attachments became common.

But it’s definitely less work to make a deal with the social network devil.

Some parents do and others don’t.

Some kids may later resent that. Others won’t.