The New York TimesThe New York Times

Baby's first social media handle

By Kate Lindsay

04 Apr 2023 · 4 min read

Even newborn babies have Instagram these days. The NYT explores the growing trend of parents securing digital accounts for their children so they can inherit them when they grow up.

Curated by informed

Sophie Kratsas was only a few hours old when she received her first email: a “welcome to the world” message from her father, Nick Kratsas. He had created an email account for his newborn daughter while still standing in the delivery room. This was 2014, and Kratsas, 44, had already noticed a dearth of unclaimed email addresses with a person’s full name without numbers, special characters or other concessions.

“I’m like, man, if I can grab this for her now, eventually she’ll be able to use this when she’s ready for it,” Kratsas said. A few days later, he created a Facebook profile for Sophie so he and his wife, Heather, 41, could begin tagging her in posts and photos. When she’s old enough, they intend to turn over the email and Facebook accounts to her, along with the robust digital histories that come with them.

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