She's Going Into Labor -- Call The IT Department!
from the baby's-first-email dept
We've witnessed technology being adopted, or least marketed to, kids of younger and younger ages. How low can they go? The mobile phone craze in Europe has gotten so bad that people have sarcastically predicted they'll start pitching the newborn demographic. It's happened in other realms too, such as marketers targeting babies with a newborn photo service. Now comes word that a Malaysian state will soon issue email addresses along with birth certificates. We receive enough email to know that the ability to form complete sentences is not a prerequisite for using email, but apparently Malaysians can't even wait until language acquisition begins. It's part of an "Email4All" campaign, which sounds altruistic enough, but we're still not sure what purpose this serves. Have Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, or some country-specific webmail not yet reached Malaysia? When the kids are old enough to actually read, communicate, and type, they'll probably opt for their own freemail handle (if they don't have email by another means) rather than use Province23Baby545978473@malaysia.gov, or some similarly undesirable address. Besides, an email address doesn't do any good if you don't have internet access. Maybe the state's money would be better spent on "Computing4All."
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Speak of the devil!
And here I am, dealing with a pregnancy crisis again involving a woman on another continent.
I'll be taking responsibility, but won't the internet create a new generation of babies with no citizenship, spawned by net-based relationships? What if a couple based on a man from country A, a woman from country B, conceive the baby in country C, deliver the baby in country D, then abandon the baby in country E?
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A unique ID by any other name...
It's become another form of national ID, hasn't it?
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Re: Speak of the devil!
This has nothing to do with the Internet. Whether the baby is considered a citizen of country A or country B or country D will depend on the laws in those countries. In America, you have the right to become a US citizen if you prove that one of your parents was a US citizen at the time of your birth. However, you still must apply for citizenship to get it.
No country C will give you citizenship for being concieved in its borders. How would you prove that anyway?
No country E would give citizenship to a baby just because it was abandoned as an illegal immigrant. Did you not see the whole Hollio Gonzalez (mispelled) thing? American soldiers pointed machine guns in the kid's face to get him to leave.
However, you post did give me a business plan. Any women in other countries who want their kids to have a better life can pay me to make sweet love to them in International waters. Then their kids can apply for US citizenship when they are 18. Any takers? Fat chicks need not apply.
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Email accounts for newborns
And of course the vast majority of emails that these babies will receive will be spam.
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Idiot
Do your research. If you are born in the US, you are a US citizen, regardless of teh nationalities of your parents. From teh INS website:
(1) By being born in the United States
If you were born in the United States (including, in most cases, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands), you are an American citizen at birth (unless you were born to a foreign diplomat). Your birth certificate is proof of your citizenship.
(2) Through birth abroad to TWO United States citizens
In most cases, you are a U.S. citizen if ALL of the following are true:
Both your parents were U.S. citizens when you were born; and
At least one of your parents lived in the United States at some point in their life.
Your record of birth abroad, if registered with a U.S. consulate or embassy, is proof of your citizenship. You may also apply for a passport to have your citizenship recognized. If you need additional proof of your citizenship, you may file a Form N-600, "Application for Certificate of Citizenship" to get a Certificate of Citizenship. You may download the form by clicking here, or you may call the USCIS Forms Line at 1(800) 870-3676 to request a Form N-600.
(3) Through birth abroad to ONE United States citizen
In most cases, you are a U.S. citizen if ALL of the following are true:
One of your parents was a U.S. citizen when you were born;
Your citizen parent lived at least 5 years in the United States before
you were born; and
At least 2 of these 5 years in the United States were after your
citizen parent's 14th birthday*.
Your record of birth abroad, if registered with a U.S. consulate or embassy, is proof of your citizenship. You may also apply for a passport to have your citizenship recognized. If you need additional proof of your citizenship, you may file an "Application for Certificate of Citizenship" (Form N-600) with USCIS to get a Certificate of Citizenship.
*If you were born before November 14, 1986, you are a citizen if your U.S. citizen parent lived in the United States for at least 10 years and 5 of those years in the United States were after your citizen parent's 14th birthday
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