When Kids Realize Their Whole Life Is Already Online网络有风险，“晒娃”需谨慎

泰勒·劳伦兹 牛海博

Googling yourself has become a rite of passage1.

用谷歌搜索自己已然成為一种成人礼。

For several months， Cara has been working up the courage to approach her mom about what she saw on Instagram2. Not long ago， the 11-year-old—who， like all the other kids in this story， is referred to by a pseudonym—discovered that her mom had been posting photos of her， without prior approval， for much of her life. “I’ve wanted to bring it up3. It’s weird seeing myself up there， and sometimes there’s pics I don’t like of myself，” she said.

Like most other modern kids， Cara grew up immersed in social media. Facebook， Twitter， and YouTube were all founded before she was born; Instagram has been around since she was a toddler. While many kids may not yet have accounts themselves， their parents， schools， sports teams， and organizations have been curating an online presence for them since birth. The shock of realizing that details about your life—or， in some cases， an entire narrative of it—have been shared online without your consent or knowledge has become a pivotal4 experience in the lives of many young teens and tweens.

But it’s not just overzealous mommy bloggers who construct a child’s online identity; plenty of average parents do the same. There’s even a portmanteau5 for it： sharenting. Almost a quarter of children begin their digital lives when parents upload their prenatal sonogram6 scans to the internet， according to a study conducted by the internet-security firm AVG7. The study also found that 92 percent of toddlers under the age of 2 already have their own unique digital identity. “Parents now shape their children’s digital identity long before these young people open their first email. The disclosures parents make online are sure to follow their children into adulthood，” declares a report by the University of Florida Levin College of Law. “These parents act as both gatekeepers of their children’s personal information and as narrators of their children’s personal stories.”

Preschools and elementary schools often keep blogs or upload photos of kids to Instagram accounts and Facebook pages so that working parents can feel like a part of their kids’ day. Sports scores are recorded online， as are notable moments from after-school clubs.

When Ellen， an 11-year-old， finally decided to Google herself， she didn’t expect to find anything， because she doesn’t yet have her own social-media accounts. She was stunned when she found years of swim scores and sports statistics on the web.

Ellen said that while she didn’t find anything too sensitive or personal， she was frustrated that all the information about herself had been posted seemingly without her consent.

“No matter what you do， it’s out there for people to know，” she said. “Even if you’re just swimming—the rest of the world will know. My meet records are out there; now people know I’m a swimmer. [The internet] tells you where all the swim meets are， so that would probably tell my general location. It tells you my school. Parts of my story online were in Spanish. Now people know I speak Spanish.”

Hayden， a 10-year-old， said he realized several years ago that his parents used a dedicated8 hashtag9 including his name on photos of him. He now monitors the hashtag to make sure they don’t post anything embarrassing.

Some legislatures are getting involved. In 2014， Europe’s highest court ruled that internet providers must give users the “right to be forgotten.” Under the ruling， European citizens can petition to have past damaging information， including crimes committed as a minor， hidden from Google search results. And in France， strict privacy laws mean kids can sue their own parents for publishing intimate or private details of their lives without consent. In the United States， however， teens and tweens aren’t offered such protections， and many simply walk on eggshells10. “You definitely just have to live cautiously，” Ellen said.

Jaime Putnam， a mom in Georgia， said she has started to be more mindful of the fact that many of her kids’ friends don’t yet know how much information about themselves is out there. Recently she saw on social media that one of her child’s friends got a puppy. She brought it up when she next saw him， and he looked at her， horrified. He had no idea how she had learned that seemingly private information. “It made me realize these kids don’t know what’s being posted all the time，” she said. Now she’s careful about what she reveals. “It kind of feels like you’re maybe crossing a line telling them everything you know about them.”

几个月来，卡拉一直想鼓足勇气找妈妈谈谈自己在照片墙上看到的东西。前不久，11岁的卡拉（本文提到的所有孩子均用化名）发现，她妈妈一直在未经允许的情况下，将她的大量生活照发布到社交媒体上。“我一直想和她提，在网上看见自己感觉很奇怪，而且有时候发的照片我自己都不喜欢。”

和大多数当代孩子一样，卡拉在社交媒体的包围中长大。脸书、推特和优兔在她出生前就已经存在;而照片墙从她蹒跚学步时就开始流行了。虽然许多孩子可能还没有自己的账号，但父母、学校、运动队和一些组织机构从他们呱呱坠地的那一刻起就开始让他们在网络世界粉墨登场了。当你意识到自己生活的种种细节——有时甚至是全部生活状况——在未经本人同意或知悉的情况下被分享到网上时，那种震惊俨然已成为许多青少年生活中的重要体验。

但構建孩子网络身份的不仅仅是那些过于狂热的育儿博主;很多普通的父母也这么做。甚至还有一个合成词来形容父母的这类行为：sharenting（晒娃）。互联网安全公司AVG开展的一项研究显示，近四分之一的孩子在父母将产前超声扫描图上传网上后就开始了他们的数字生活。该研究还发现，92%两岁以下的幼儿已经拥有了自己独一无二的数字身份。“早在这些年轻人打开人生中第一封电子邮件之前，他们父母就已经塑造了他们的数字身份。父母在网上发布的信息一定会伴随孩子步入成年。”佛罗里达大学莱文法学院的一份报告称，“这些父母既是孩子个人信息的看门人，又是孩子个人故事的讲述者。”

幼儿园和小学经常在照片墙账号和脸书主页上发博客或上传照片记录孩子的日常，这样，在职父母就会觉得自己也参与其中。孩子们的体育成绩及课后社团活动的重要时刻都会记录在网上。

当11岁的埃伦最终决定用谷歌搜索一下自己时，并没有期待能找到什么内容，因为她还没有自己的社交媒体账户。但当她在网上找到自己多年来的游泳成绩和体育数据时，她大吃一惊。

埃伦说，虽然没有发现任何过于敏感或私人的内容，但她还是很气恼，因为所有关于她的信息似乎都未经她同意就发布了。

她说：“无论你做什么，其他人都会知道。即使你只是在游泳——全世界也会知道。我的比赛成绩就在网上;现在人们知道我是个游泳运动员了。 （在互联网上）能查到我所有游泳比赛的地点，这就可能泄露我的大概位置。它会告诉你我在哪所学校上学。网上有一些关于我的信息是西班牙语的，现在人们也知道我会说西班牙语了。”

10岁的海登说，几年前他了解到父母专门为他设了一个话题标签，里面他的照片都打上了他的名字。他现在监督着话题的内容，以确保他们不会发布令人尴尬的东西。

一些立法机关正在介入。2014年，欧洲最高法院裁定，互联网服务商必须给予用户“被遗忘的权利”。根据该裁决，欧洲公民可以申请将过去的负面信息（包括未成年人犯罪）在谷歌搜索的结果中隐藏起来。在法国，严格的隐私保护法意味着如果父母在未经同意的情况下发布自己生活的隐私或私密细节，孩子可以起诉他们。然而，在美国，青少年并没未得到此类保护，许多人感到如履薄冰。“你必须小心谨慎地生活。”埃伦说。

佐治亚州一位名叫杰米·普特南的母亲说，她已更加关注起这样一个事实——自己孩子的很多朋友还不知道他们有多少信息已经被发布到网上。最近，她在社交媒体上看到她孩子的一位朋友养了一只小狗。当她后来见到他时，顺便提起了这件事，结果小男孩十分惊恐地看着她。他全然不知她是如何得知这个看似私密的信息的。普特南说：“这让我意识到，这些孩子并不知道他们的日常生活已被发布到网上了。”现在她对自己谈论的内容也谨慎起来。“告诉他们你了解他们的一切，这感觉有点儿越界了。”

（译者为“《英语世界》杯”翻译大赛获奖选手）