Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies...

Grow up in the public eye, i.e. on the internet. Some of our websites are just a little like the Truman Show, aren't they? That's not necessarily fair to our young people. Of course, some young people publish their foolishness on purpose for all to see. Recently I visited a website that my tracker informed me had come to the Common Room, and it was a young teenager's blog. He was angrily complaining about his family, his teachers, his friends, and his life in general. He was foul-mouthed, trivial, and ridiculous, as are many 13 y.o. kids- and all I could think of as I read was, "Oh, this poor kid. He's going to be so embarrassed by all this in a few years. I can only hope that it won't be as embarrassing as I think since half the young people in the country are embarrassing themselves in the same way. We don't know how it will all turn out for these kids publishing their most secret, private, and all too common to the human race growing pains on the internet, because the Truman Generation hasn't grown up yet. Meanwhile, since we don't know, as parents, we need sometimes to protect our kids from themselves. Don't be paranoid, but do be sure you've thought about what you're telling and showing the world.

A long time ago we got ourselves in a sticky situation where we loved and acted unwisely. I am not going to go into the details, because those details are part of the reason we continue to maintain a semi-anonymous presence on the internet- not perfectly, but good enough for our purposes. We're not paranoid about it, and we are not as good at it as I would wish, but we are careful. That may seem kind of funny to many of our readers, because a lot of you do know who the DHM is, but it's the truth. Our problem was largely caused because we gave out too much personal information too quickly. We did this because we thought we were dealing with one kind of person and that our level of contact was only going to increase. Instead we found out we were dealing with a much different situation than we'd been led to believe, and our level of personal contact had to cease. All further contact has been through an intermediary. Unfortunately we learned too late and to our disadvantage that while you can always give out more information later if that seems wise, You can't take back the information you've already given away. You can move, change your name, and go unlisted. We did two of these three things.

Below are some links to blogs that can help you figure out what, if any, problems you should be watching out for, and what, if anything, you want to do about it all. The links in this post are for Mamas and Papas. They are definitely the sort to bring a blush to a young maiden's cheek, so parents should read them first.
So think about these things and read these links. The comments to these posts will offer more food for thought about things like your children's privacy, the way that what's on the internet can be around forever (so think about what your young people say and do online), and more. Parents will want to spend time reading and thinking about these ideas.

David Boles at Urban Semiotic writes about why he thinks nobody should post pictures of their kids online. He comes on strong, a bit harsh, but he's worried, and he has some valid points. See what you think. There are 44 comments (he's closed comments now), and I think they are also worth reading.

Blest with Sons is where I first found a link to Boles' post, and she has a good post and good comments as well.

Razor's Kiss thinks removing all pictures of our children might be a little paranoid, but has some suggestions about the kinds of pictures we don't want to post- ever. Also much discussion about other privacy issues affecting our children.