Today, I came across a few articles about posting pictures of children on your webpage, and it made my stomach turn. I actually feel like crying. It was so disturbing to hear what perverted people might get from a picture of a child. The articles recommended removing all pictures of your children and never using real names for their protection. I don't know what I think of all this, but I'm thinking.
I feel so saddened right now and I almost wish I hadn't stumbled upon these articles. I have loved sharing pictures of my kids. It's so fun, and probably one of my favorite things about posting! I don't know if I will change anything, but here are the articles. One is very strong, and not necessaryly my opinion just something to think about.
http://millenniumhippies.blogspot.com/2005/05/otherwise-known-as.html
http://urbansemiotic.com/2005/07/13/take-your-children-offline-now/
Hey, mamas. Tell me what you think.
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4 comments:
love your new profile pic!
my take is this:
by all means protect your kids identity. i don't use my children's names nor our last name nor where we live.
pics, though. i don't know. of course i don't want my children to be fodder for a pervert's imagination. but the benefits of my parents and relatives and friends keeping up on the happenings of our lives is more important to me than the possibility that some pervert *might* find my obscure blog and look at my children.
healthy fear should be heeded and it does make me think more about what pictures should be publicly posted. something i hadn't really thought about previously.
thanks for bringing this to my attention.
thanks for your thoughts trish. I like what you said and I am thinking that too right now. I agree that we as parents need a healthy fear, healthy being the emphasis.
I struggle with this. You obviously know I still end up posting pictures of them, but not without hesitation. I make a dilligent effort to remain as anonymous as possible by not using names and too much detailed information about our locale, but I still struggle.
For me it's not as much the part of safety, because I think we face a much greater risk just being out and about than I do putting myself online. I mean, who's to say I'm not going to meet someone that wants to harm me in the grocery store or mall, rather than having someone online want to do me harm.
What really bothers me is their personal space I have chosen to open up for others to see. Making the decision to do so without their consent. Will it bother them someday?
I've asked myself, "what if my mom had blogged my whole childhood." And I struggle between how interesting it would be to read an archive of sorts about my childhood and how vulnerable it would make me feel knowing she's shared things about me with strangers. I weigh more on the "it would be interesting" side and just attempt to remain as vague as possible with sharing what I can, and not getting too personal.
It also makes me feel better to assume that hardly anyone reads my blog anyway.
I had an entire post written on this topic I never ended up publishing. Sorry for rambling on.
thanks so much Andy! I agree. I think about all the other ways they are even more vunerable. We can't lock them in their closets to protect them!
I hadn't even thought about what they would think about someday later. Interesting. I always thought they would think it was cool, bad assumption!
thanks for the thougts
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