Parents are buying domain names for their newborns, partly to make sure the address doesn't get bought up by someone else, partly to provide friends and family with an easy way of getting photos/news and partly because hey, they are geeks. Well, not all of them -- one of the points of the story is that the practice is happening beyond geek circles, with others seeing the value of parking their kids' domain name from day one.
There are privacy concerns -- some folks aren't locking down their kids sites, others are concerned that being able to easily guess a child's domain name (e.g. first name, last name, .com) is an invitation to unsavory types.

