Tweeting from the Womb

A device called the Kickbee will post a tweet from your unborn child every time he/she kicks. I discuss the Kickbee briefly in Tuesday's episode of my technology news show, Loaded.

The Kickbee will post a tweet to a designated Twitter account that says, "I kicked Mommy." Sounds innocuous enough, right? I'm not so sure.

The thing is, there has to be a designated Twitter account to send these updates to. This means your unborn child will have a Twitter profile before he/she is even born. Isn't that a little young? Facebook doesn't even let someone have an account until age 13.

While I am sure your family would love to monitor baby's every move from afar, I am struggling with how much to share on social networks as I prepare for the birth of my first--38 weeks and counting! Shouldn't I allow the baby to develop its own social-networking habits? Will it ever develop its own judiciousness when it comes to social networking if I default to sharing everything from the get-go? Shouldn't I ultimately allow its bowel movements to be its own business?

There is no shortage of mommies who post photos, tweets, quotes, videos, and more on the Internet. I can relate. I have a mommy blog of my own. But how do we do this responsibly?

As a technology reporter, I'm not as concerned about my child's online safety as I am about my child's online behavior. I want my child to learn how to be a responsible social sharer on his/her own and not because mommy was so eager to share every adorable move.

As far as I know, there is no research that studies how a child's online behavior develops if he/she is born to oversharing parents. So I welcome the comments of parents and parents-to-be about how they decide what to share about their bundles of joy.

Thursday: Natali has a look at another way technology is affecting this important time in her life.