Published May 22, 2011
Some parents are registering a domain in their child's name pre-emptively as once a name is unavailable, it can be gone for good - or for at least the lifetime of the person who has registered it. In the case of parents who register a name before their child is born, that name may be unavailable for many decades.
The trend of parents establishing an online identity for their children first became apparent in the USA, but Australia appears to be following suit, as it tends to do with online trends. In a survey carried out last year by AVG, 7% of Australian mothers polled had given their baby an email address and 81% of children under two in all countries surveyed currently had some kind of digital presence.
Parents are seeing the practice as an investment in a child's future; a future that will occur in an increasingly online world where the child may want to establish an online presence under their own name.
The Internet already plays such a big role in our lives and it's happened so fast, so it's not hard to imagine it becoming even more intertwined in our lives as the years go by and having a domain name in your own name may be an advantage in that scenario.
Other parents register their child's name just for the novelty aspect - a gift with a difference; a 21st Century version of buying any other personalised gift.
Registering a common first name and surname in the .com extension is just about impossible now, so parents are turning to other extensions or if they want a distinctly Australian connection for their child's domain name.
However, unlike .com names, which anyone can register, parents can't register .com.au in their child's name as that extension is meant to be for commercial purposes only under the guidelines of the body that oversees the administration of the .au name space.
What parents can do is can register an id.au domain as .id.au is the extension set aside specifically for personal use. The only other eligibility criteria for id.au registrations are registrants must be an Australian citizen or an Australian resident.
In the event the id.au name parents want for their child is already registered, they can also use a hyphen in the name - so instead of FirstnameLastname.id.au, they can register Firstname-Lastname.id.au; or even an abbreviation such as FirstnameL.id.au, or their child's nickname; which is also permitted.
The cost for registering an .id.au name through Domain Registration Services is $59.00 for 2 years. An accredited registrar, Domain Registration Services also offers all other .au extensions, plus global extensions such as .com, .net, .biz, .info and .org - the latter five parents can also use for a domain name for their child as there are no restrictions on those extensions.
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How to register a name: Enter your choice in the search tool and click 'GO'. If after the check the domain names search results show your choice is available, you will then have the option to proceed to purchase registration; which is a very quick and easy process - start a search and find your ideal website address now.
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