Greetings all,
On my drive home from Brisbane, i popped into see my brother, his wife & 4 children, in the country. We were talking about blogs, on line profiles & their children on FaceBook. They don't mind their children on FB as two are in boarding school, two are at University, it's a way to keep in touch, although children can naively advertise where they go to school/ university/ socially + full names & birthdays (5 points of identification). I won't reveal on my blog my husband or children's names or any of our actual birth dates, schools, uniforms + i delay actual times of events involving my children (like sports) to maintain their privacy. If my husband had his way, i wouldn't have a blog or images of our children. Anyway, i asked my sister-in-law if any of their teenagers (all social, smart, sporty) had suffered at the fate of stalkers??
On my drive home from Brisbane, i popped into see my brother, his wife & 4 children, in the country. We were talking about blogs, on line profiles & their children on FaceBook. They don't mind their children on FB as two are in boarding school, two are at University, it's a way to keep in touch, although children can naively advertise where they go to school/ university/ socially + full names & birthdays (5 points of identification). I won't reveal on my blog my husband or children's names or any of our actual birth dates, schools, uniforms + i delay actual times of events involving my children (like sports) to maintain their privacy. If my husband had his way, i wouldn't have a blog or images of our children. Anyway, i asked my sister-in-law if any of their teenagers (all social, smart, sporty) had suffered at the fate of stalkers??
She said a resounded "YES, every single one of them". From varying degrees of on line FB stalking directly, indirectly via 'friends' FB pages & yes, finding out they had been broken-up-with-via-a-FB-status-update . . . all the way to one hunting their eldest son down in Europe!! This nephew is a catch, friendly, handsome, elite athlete, studying medicine . . . troubled girls find him. His high school girlfriend was attacked by a girl who was having an imaginery relationship with him (??) & other crazy stalking incidents followed. What is that saying about a woman scorned "hell hath no fury"?? These are teenagers with hormones, imaginations & the internet!! We've seen in the news, through real-life-dumb-actions-by-sports-stars . . . mixed with on line social media, professional reputations & careers can be crushed.
We don't plan to allow our children to have FB or on line profiles until they are adults & aware of consequences on what can happen to your information in the big bad world. I'd rather promote actual telephone calls & seeing friends as their social entertainment. Once they are home, that is family time, limited emails & internet, no mobiles & no on line chit chat time wasting rubbish which can wait until school the next day!! Surely with the volume of homework & assignments my children have in junior high & primary school, there isn't enough time for anything other than sport, eating & sleeping when they are full blown teenagers??
I asked my brother if his children were clued in that everything on line - not necessarily on their own profiles, but anything about them in any social media capacity - were they aware it's there forever, for future employers, friends, partners to see & judge, for stalkers to piece together where you live, play, party etc?? What about a new boyfriend who turns out to be jealous psycho & check out your history of parties, holidays & love with ex-boyfriends?? OMG, does anyone think about this?? My brother said teenagers have no clue, they don't think about it, it's teenage impulse of here & now, must share everything immediately & no thought for future consequences.
Even on our sweet-mummy-crafty-type blogs where we innocently post about holidays, births, events & funny family stories, people can follow your child's history & who knows what crazy things they might use it for, manipulation, connection, research. I think about this every time i post & try to be vague about details. Christy from Little Betty was telling me at Sew It Together all sorts of weird sites her blog images have turned up on, some very unsavory weird fetish sites??!! Yes, eeww. Christy cleverly doesn't post her children's names & rarely their cute little faces!!
You can never be too careful, even in 10 years time, something you post might come back to bite you or your family. Incredibly scary but it's just not the same world we grew up in, with so much information available at the touch of a button. Love Posie
We don't plan to allow our children to have FB or on line profiles until they are adults & aware of consequences on what can happen to your information in the big bad world. I'd rather promote actual telephone calls & seeing friends as their social entertainment. Once they are home, that is family time, limited emails & internet, no mobiles & no on line chit chat time wasting rubbish which can wait until school the next day!! Surely with the volume of homework & assignments my children have in junior high & primary school, there isn't enough time for anything other than sport, eating & sleeping when they are full blown teenagers??
I asked my brother if his children were clued in that everything on line - not necessarily on their own profiles, but anything about them in any social media capacity - were they aware it's there forever, for future employers, friends, partners to see & judge, for stalkers to piece together where you live, play, party etc?? What about a new boyfriend who turns out to be jealous psycho & check out your history of parties, holidays & love with ex-boyfriends?? OMG, does anyone think about this?? My brother said teenagers have no clue, they don't think about it, it's teenage impulse of here & now, must share everything immediately & no thought for future consequences.
Even on our sweet-mummy-crafty-type blogs where we innocently post about holidays, births, events & funny family stories, people can follow your child's history & who knows what crazy things they might use it for, manipulation, connection, research. I think about this every time i post & try to be vague about details. Christy from Little Betty was telling me at Sew It Together all sorts of weird sites her blog images have turned up on, some very unsavory weird fetish sites??!! Yes, eeww. Christy cleverly doesn't post her children's names & rarely their cute little faces!!
You can never be too careful, even in 10 years time, something you post might come back to bite you or your family. Incredibly scary but it's just not the same world we grew up in, with so much information available at the touch of a button. Love Posie
