Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Feeling Paranoid In Blogland!
A phone call from a friend last night prompted me to delete Brayden's award picture. My friend informed me that if you double clicked on the photo you could see Brayden's full name and the name of his school (and that of his little girlfriend). My husband happened to hear my phone conversation and he wasn't too pleased. We discussed my blog and he explained how he is not comfortable with images of our children being on the Internet. Maybe when it comes to my blog I am being naive, but I have always felt safe. I have met so many great people, whom I have grown too trust. In the real World, I am much more cautious and suspicious, but on my blog I felt safe. It saddens me that I can't put pictures of my kids on the blog without worrying that some creep might take the photos and do sick things with them or worse yet...find out where we live. I don't know but suddenly my bubble has burst and my blog doesn't seem so safe anymore!
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10 comments:
i think that's a good call. you wouldn't put posters of the kid up in the public square, and that's essentially what the internet is. i know a lot of people are more comfortable than i am.
i have a livejournal that i lock down for friends, and that's where i post any photos. i crop the kids out and such on my blogspot. i mean, we all want to see the award (you should be so proud!), but maybe you could crop to hands...
the world is a scary, and not so scary place. you're just being prudent.
It is hard to know what to do! I go back and forth on this one. If I post a pic of my kids, I try to hide some of their face and i definitely post fewer pics of them than I used to.
I have thinking of opening a Flickr just for friends and family and that way they could stay updated.
I post my kids pictures because my blog is also a place for me to keep in touch with family. And I use their names, but only their first names. I kept my maiden name when we got married and they have their dad's last name, which I am careful not to mention. Nor do I mention their school name.
It is a tough call. I'm sure you'll find a balance that works for you. :)
I go back and forth on this, too. I may change what I post in the future. Go with you gut. You have to do what you think is right.
Sorry if I started all this for you Erin.....just looking out for the kiddies ya know. I wish we didn't have to think about this negative stuff so please try not to let it overshadow the wonderful people and many rewards that blogging brings you.
I feel paranoid about this too. Once on flickr some guy had marked a couple pictures of my kids as favorites. When I went to check out his other favorites, there were pages and pages of Asian kids. Isn't that freaky? Needless to say, I blocked him, but it definitely makes me think twice.
Ugh! What messy stuff the internet gets us thinking about. I think it's smart to be somewhat anonyomous (with children in particular) and setting up a private account elsewhere might be your best bet for sharing family photos.
I post pictures of my kids and use their first names but I don't identify where we live. Sure I say we're in BC, but that's it. I guess with a bunch of sleuthing someone could find us, but weirdos are everywhere, we could run across one in our own neighbourhood.
As an aside - You should go back a few posts, you've got a pic of a magazine (one of my faves!) that shows your full name and address.
Thanks Kathleen - I went back and deleted the photo with the magazine. Can't believe I missed that one. There must be a way to post pictures so that people can't double click on them to enlarge them!
I struggle with this too. It is hard to separate my kids from my blog because they are so much of my world. I know that if someone wanted to track us down, they probably could. they would really have to try...but they could do it. but how paranoid does one live their life? it is a difficult balance to achieve.
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