My son already has an online "presence" and he is not yet two years old. Apparently, he is not alone. A study by security company AVG found that 92 percent of two-year-olds in the US have an online record.

AVG calls this phenomenal "digital birth". It will be a generation, that for the first time, will have a digital footprint prior to and from the moment they are born. The average "digital birth" of children worldwide happens at about six months, with a third of children having photos of them posted online within two weeks of birth, says AVG.

AVG urges parents to think carefully when creating a digital history for their child. It will follow him or her for the rest of their life.

"What kind of footprint do you actually want to start for your child, and what will they think about the information you've uploaded in the future?" the company asks.

"Secondly, it reinforces the need for parents to be aware of the privacy settings they have set on their social network and other profiles. Otherwise, sharing a baby's picture and specific information may not only be shared with friends and family but with the whole online world."

As parents we love to post pictures of our newborns. The danger is that picture you took of him or her taking a bath will end up being circulated by paedophiles and other sickos. A little search shows that a lot of parents are not very careful. I am shocked by the number of naked videos and pictures of babies, toddlers and older children that these parents have posted on YouTube and on open sites.

A simple search for "naked baby" will show you what I mean (please do not do this search at work; it is bound to bring you unwanted attention). We no longer live in a simpler world, where such innocence and freedom could be appreciated. Once those images are made public, you and your child no longer have control of them.

For example, I know of one mother who stopped her nine-year-old son from modelling after she found the images of him on his agency's site were being illegally used by a number of other less wholesome sites. I thought carefully about the issues AVG raises in its survey. My desire was to create a safe online presence where I have complete control over who looks at the images. I also needed to share photos on a weekly basis with most of my family who live in Canada.

First, I post very few photos of him on Facebook or other sites that I cannot, it the end, control. I created a site specifically for him with his own domain on a server space I rent. The site is password protected. Only family can enter the site.

Of course, this protection does not prevent someone from breaking into the site or stealing a password. But it would take a pretty determined person, since there are some many other easily available images out there. Everyone with access to my son's site has their one unique password, so I can monitor any abuse. I have to approve every entry request. I have rejected at least ten people who tried to gain entry to the site and I did not know.

A family member could also unwittingly take the photos and repost them, but they are aware of the dangers. The fact that I created a site specifically for their grandson and nephew was a signal for them to be careful.

To answer concerns about my son becoming embarrassed later on about some of the photos, I plan to turn the site over to him once he is old enough to look after it. He can then delete the photos he does not want, or make them more private.

A related survey on university students shows that people are incredibly careless about their own privacy. AVG says it wanted to prevent "Facebook status jacking", a case where people get your password to the social media site and then have you sending links of "interesting" to your friends. The links take you to sites that attempt to get your passwords and private data.

AVG's survey revealed that only 48 percent of young adults in the US, UK and Australia protect their laptops and mobile devices with a password. About 78 percent secure their laptops with a password. Between 41-50 percent secure their mobile devices.

In the UK about four in ten said they shared those passwords with friends and family. In the US, the figure was about one in three.

Send any comments to Ahmed at elamin.ahmed@gmail.com.