Facebook Lets Expectant Parents Add Unborn Children

There is a new feature on Facebook for those expecting children. Soon proud parents-to-be will be able to add their imminant infants to the friends and family section of their profile under the heading “Expected: Child”. Parents can add a photo (presumably an ultrasound image), the name and the due date. Once this is all set up the unborn child is listed alongside family members on the user’s profile. The new addition to this feature allows status updates to be posted on behalf of the feotus.

There is speculation that this was all brought on by the recent increase in people creating individual profiles for their as yet unborn children – something which contravenes Facebook’s terms of service. A spokesperson for the social network told Mashable “We’re always testing new features. Earlier this year, Facebook strted providing the option to add an ‘Expected: Child’ as a way for users to more accurately express their identity”.

It’s all a very nice idea, but some people have pointed out that this mass broadcasting of pregancy news could lead to some very awkward situations if there were any complications and things didn’t go to plan. The other thought that just crossed my mind is probably more suited to UK talk show Jeremy Kyle, but does Facebook allow for the fact that there may be some ambiguity over the parternity of the child? Presumably the expectant parents are listed as ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’, but can more than one man be attributed to the baby as its father? Who knows…