Digital footprints start long before children take their first steps.
They may still be in utero when their parents post about them on social media,
sharing sonograms with captions such as "Love at first sight!"
Then come the newborn photos, flashed across Instagram within hours of a baby's birth.
"Sharenting" is on the rise: one in four children in the West
has a social-media presence before they are born, according to one oft-cited figure.
Parents don't always stop there, however.
Some turn their offspring into full-blown social-media stars—catchily called "kidfluencers"—
documenting every major milestone (and many minor ones).
They pick up the camera to capture first words and first steps,
teething troubles, tantrums and potty training.
Even the "most intimate moments are broadcast to millions", writes Fortesa Latifi, a journalist, in a new book,
as content is spun out of everything from puberty to menstruation.
"Like, Follow, Subscribe" is a fascinating exposé of kidfluencing,
a multi-billion-dollar business where "children's privacy is traded for profits".
She meets the parents who have become "producers, managers and cameramen",
incentivising their kids to film videos and dictating how many hours they work a day.
Kidfluencing is a lucrative family profit centre.
Ms Latifi discovers that the top accounts charge as much as $200,000 per sponsored post,
bringing in between $8m and $10m a year.