• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, April 1, 2015

The development comes courtesy of Facebook, which now gives parents the ability to tag their kids in the photos they share with others.

“We’re starting to pilot an optional way for you to organize photos of your child, using a special tag you choose to create,” Dan Barak, product manager at Facebook, explains in a new blog post.

If and when users choose to tag their children in a photo, it will be added to a customizable “scrapbook.” The tagged shots can then be shared selectively with friends, as well as spouse’s friends.

In fact, users can opt to “co-own” the scrapbooks with their partner, according to Barak. Either way, only a child’s parents will be able to tag him or her in pictures.

Parents can also choose what they name the tag, from the baby’s given name to something more general like “bundle of joy.”

In the near future, the change could create new opportunities for marketers. Yet Facebook and its brand partners will need to proceed cautiously before using the additional data for business purposes. The social giant is already facing a nationwide class-action lawsuit for selling products to children without their parents’ permission.

Along with his personal experiences as a new father, Barak said the initiative resulted from some informal research, which found that parents were looking for a better way to organize their baby pictures on Facebook.

Beginning in the United States, the new tagging feature is expected to roll out slowly over the coming weeks.