When Kids Realize Their Whole Life Is Already Online網絡有風險，“曬娃”需謹慎

泰勒·勞倫茲 牛海博

Googling yourself has become a rite of passage1.

用谷歌搜索自己已然成為一種成人禮。

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.”

幾個月來，卡拉一直想鼓足勇氣找媽媽談談自己在照片墻上看到的東西。前不久，11歲的卡拉（本文提到的所有孩子均用化名）發現，她媽媽一直在未經允許的情況下，將她的大量生活照發布到社交媒體上。“我一直想和她提，在網上看見自己感覺很奇怪，而且有時候發的照片我自己都不喜歡。”

和大多數當代孩子一樣，卡拉在社交媒體的包圍中長大。臉書、推特和優兔在她出生前就已經存在;而照片墻從她蹣跚學步時就開始流行了。雖然許多孩子可能還沒有自己的賬號，但父母、學校、運動隊和一些組織機構從他們呱呱墜地的那一刻起就開始讓他們在網絡世界粉墨登場了。當你意識到自己生活的種種細節——有時甚至是全部生活狀況——在未經本人同意或知悉的情況下被分享到網上時，那種震驚儼然已成為許多青少年生活中的重要體驗。

但構建孩子網絡身份的不僅僅是那些過于狂熱的育兒博主;很多普通的父母也這么做。甚至還有一個合成詞來形容父母的這類行為：sharenting（曬娃）。互聯網安全公司AVG開展的一項研究顯示，近四分之一的孩子在父母將產前超聲掃描圖上傳網上后就開始了他們的數字生活。該研究還發現，92%兩歲以下的幼兒已經擁有了自己獨一無二的數字身份。“早在這些年輕人打開人生中第一封電子郵件之前，他們父母就已經塑造了他們的數字身份。父母在網上發布的信息一定會伴隨孩子步入成年。”佛羅里達大學萊文法學院的一份報告稱，“這些父母既是孩子個人信息的看門人，又是孩子個人故事的講述者。”

幼兒園和小學經常在照片墻賬號和臉書主頁上發博客或上傳照片記錄孩子的日常，這樣，在職父母就會覺得自己也參與其中。孩子們的體育成績及課后社團活動的重要時刻都會記錄在網上。

當11歲的埃倫最終決定用谷歌搜索一下自己時，并沒有期待能找到什么內容，因為她還沒有自己的社交媒體賬戶。但當她在網上找到自己多年來的游泳成績和體育數據時，她大吃一驚。

埃倫說，雖然沒有發現任何過于敏感或私人的內容，但她還是很氣惱，因為所有關于她的信息似乎都未經她同意就發布了。

她說：“無論你做什么，其他人都會知道。即使你只是在游泳——全世界也會知道。我的比賽成績就在網上;現在人們知道我是個游泳運動員了。 （在互聯網上）能查到我所有游泳比賽的地點，這就可能泄露我的大概位置。它會告訴你我在哪所學校上學。網上有一些關于我的信息是西班牙語的，現在人們也知道我會說西班牙語了。”

10歲的海登說，幾年前他了解到父母專門為他設了一個話題標簽，里面他的照片都打上了他的名字。他現在監督著話題的內容，以確保他們不會發布令人尷尬的東西。

一些立法機關正在介入。2014年，歐洲最高法院裁定，互聯網服務商必須給予用戶“被遺忘的權利”。根據該裁決，歐洲公民可以申請將過去的負面信息（包括未成年人犯罪）在谷歌搜索的結果中隱藏起來。在法國，嚴格的隱私保護法意味著如果父母在未經同意的情況下發布自己生活的隱私或私密細節，孩子可以起訴他們。然而，在美國，青少年并沒未得到此類保護，許多人感到如履薄冰。“你必須小心謹慎地生活。”埃倫說。

佐治亞州一位名叫杰米·普特南的母親說，她已更加關注起這樣一個事實——自己孩子的很多朋友還不知道他們有多少信息已經被發布到網上。最近，她在社交媒體上看到她孩子的一位朋友養了一只小狗。當她后來見到他時，順便提起了這件事，結果小男孩十分驚恐地看著她。他全然不知她是如何得知這個看似私密的信息的。普特南說：“這讓我意識到，這些孩子并不知道他們的日常生活已被發布到網上了。”現在她對自己談論的內容也謹慎起來。“告訴他們你了解他們的一切，這感覺有點兒越界了。”

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎選手）