Attention new parents, what your baby really needs is their own Instagram account.

Okay parents-to-be, the order goes like this:

Give birth.

Inform friends and family.

Update Facebook and register your child with their own Instagram account.

Wait, what?

Yep, apparently it’s no longer enough to simply spam your own friends with your baby pictures, they need their very own social media account to update with their own adventures.

Read more: What your Facebook status really says about you.

In fact, if the behaviour of celebrities is anything to go by, your child’s account should be up and running within hours of their arrival into the world.

Judge on The Face and Canadian born model Coco Rocha and her husband set up an Instagram account for their newborn daughter Ioni only two hours after she was born.

Two hours after my kids were born, I was still in a drug induced haze wondering what the hell to do with this small person starring up adoringly at me. Forget social media, how the hell do I feed it?

It can be assumed that the account for Ioni was established to provide friends and family with the highly sought after first pics of bub but the account has since been developed into the little ones very own daily diary. Complete with captions and musings (oh, except she is yet to develop the ability to speak).

To date, the account of baby Ioni has over 30,000 followers and has only been active since March this year. Yep, 30,000 followers in three months. That’s nothing if not impressive.

Ioni is not alone in her baby Instagram presence. The Huffington Post estimates that approximately 40 per cent of modern day parents have a social media account of some description specifically for their child.

A video posted by Ioni James Conran (@ioniconran) on Jun 26, 2015 at 5:01pm PDT

Being pregnant with my third child, I think it’s safe to say that I fall well within the category of potential account holders. But I can safely say that this is one parenting trend I absolutely will not be jumping on board with. In fact, in an age where online safety is an issue that all parents need to be extra vigilant about, it confuses me as to why someone would willingly broadcast pictures of their child in a manner which has little control.

Read more: “Should I ban photos of my baby on Facebook?”

Sharing a couple of pictures on your own social media account is one thing (which you should still be considering carefully before posting).

Listen to Holly Wainwright and Andrew Daddo talk about babies on instagram on our parenting podcast This Glorious Mess.

Having a separate account with their name and pictures publicly known is another. Especially when such an account garners the attention of 30,000 people.

In my opinion, it’s just creepy. Why would anyone want to follow an account of a child, unless that child is personally known to you, or you have ulterior motives?

The other thing that bothers me about this trend is that your child has absolutely no say in it.

I know as parents we make a lot of decisions for them but everyone knows once something is on the internet, it's there forever. It's one thing to drag out the pictures of your child painting naked in the yard at their 21st birthday. It's a completely different thing to have that picture broadcast on social media for anyone to see.

We need to consider these things when we post pictures of our children. They're permanent. The pictures you post today will be accessible in the future - to school friends, employers, partners. I wouldn't like the thought that my baby photos were floating around the big wide web. They're personal, private. But for children of the modern age, it's almost a given. Perhaps I'm in the minority but posting pictures and captions of your child while they are unable to give consent isn't doing the right thing by them as a parent.

Would you set up an Instagram for your newborn?

CLICK on the gallery below for all the images of Ioni.