I have a confession to make. I almost never blog about my kids on Mom Spark. Have you noticed? Yes, I am a mom blogger who doesn’t blog about her kids. There, I’ve said it.
Truth is, I’ve never felt safe publicly displaying my kids. Sure, I’ve discussed issues like whether to have another child and managing work and parenting, but I rarely get personal. You will not find many photos of my kids here, either. These details are stashed away on my private blog, for my family and close friend’s eyes only.
Why?
Part of my hesitation is overall online safety. I like to trust that the internet is completely safe and harmless, but we all know that isn’t true. I am also extremely paranoid. If you worked in Corrections for six years, you’d be paranoid, too. I try to remember that there are good, trusting people online, but nonetheless, I still get that bad feeling in my gut.
The other part is privacy. I like keeping some things to myself. Yes, I am a blogger who likes to keep some elements of my life private. There, I’ve said that, too. In addition to my kids, I also keep my religion, political views, and bra size to myself. If an occasion ever arises where I feel compelled to share such information, I will, but for now, get used to the disappointment.
I have absolutely no qualms with bloggers, including my own contributors, who choose to share intimate details on their blogs, and, honestly, those who do probably have a more plugged in, captive audience. Let’s face it, we all like to peek into the lives of others, right? Is it safe, though? Does it invade our children’s privacy? Is it responsible? These are questions I often battle with.
I suppose the beauty of mom blogging is that we can each choose what we would like to share, or not share. There are no rules. We can blog about our child’s first day of school, a product review, or share our favorite recipe. It doesn’t matter. We are all still moms who blog, in spite our varied interests, skills, and talents.
I want to hear from you. Do you blog about your children? Do you post photos? If so, do you feel safe doing so?
In addition to leaving a comment, please fill out the survey below, so I can get a better idea of how you feel about this issue. I’m also giving away a year membership to KidsEmail.org, which is a safe email service for children. You can ENTER HERE.
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MannaB on 
Hi
I have a blog at http://www.frugalfamily.co.uk and this is something that i have debated myself over and over. I love taking pictures of my kids and for the first six months or so I didn’t really have many pictures of them but recently I have started to relax a lot more about the pictures although I don’t use their names and refer to them as Miss Frugal and Master Frugal.
Now that I use more pictures I actually enjoy writing my blog a lot more and I’m sure its more enjoyable to read.
I am confident that it is safe to use pictures on my blog – there are much worse dangers that they will face on a daily basis when growing up imho.
Good debate though – makes you think x
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I am king of like you, Amy. I really have an uneasy feeling in my gut when it comes to info on the internet. But, my weakness is when I get blinded to everyone else that may read this. I will start to talk on something vaguely and then later may give a piece of info that can have others starting to learn more info than I like. But, then… I have quite a few pics online. (Not my Blog yet, it’s coming)
My sons w/ their accomplishments have been pictured in the newspaper, internet, etc
My daughter as well. & then one of my youngest, media took pics in his classroom for the paper (which ends up on the internet).
Not all have their names associated w/ the pic but some do.
Is it safe for the newspaper to show them and name them… especially if it is a school function? so their school is shown, grade, teacher, etc- But it is not safe for me…?
I am torn. There are actual sex offenders living in our area (not next door but close enough for me not to be comfortable w/ outdoor play even and we live in a higher than average neighborhood).
I think just as we have rules for outdoor play, rules when sleeping over, rules when approached by a stranger in person, on the internet, etc- That is what needs to be done. We talk to our kids constantly about what to do in certain situations.
& then, it’s just how much personal info is revealed that could put them in danger of identity theft… My oldest is at that age and I have stressed that we see everything before he signs anything. We see everything before he fills it out, etc. It’s a shame of what we have to be weary of though.
If I had an ex or someone who was threatening us in some way or didn’t want to be found by someone, I would probably be more private about ourselves. I HATE that my last name shows on FB and I HATE the few Blogs that have the comments set up through whatever the sign in account is that shows my last name… But, I think, well, my friends know it, my co-workers know it, my neighbors know it… No, I don’t think they are fraudulent and there are people out there who make it their business to FIND whatever they can on someone if not for anything else but to call or write you and use your real name saying you won “this” or you inherited “that” type of thing. I think that is all just being smart and doing your homework too before giving out info.
I really try not to fill out my real name and address info if a site is not secure. This includes contests through manufacturers, sign up for info for colleges, etc. If they are legit or not…
Pics of my kids, somewhat okay… I would rather not have their names all over the web though… Employer’s even do google searches on names to find out about people they want to hire. A large pool of info!
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I’ve read everyone’s comments and all have valid points. Excellent debate topic! There are many things we as parents should be cautious about – unfortunately this is just one of them.
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It is kinda scary when you think about posting pics of your kids on the internet.. anything could happen..
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This is something that I have been debating in my head ever since I started blogging a couple of years ago.
Initially, I was cautious in using photos of my kids and their real names, as there is so much scaremongering in the media these days. I started out my http://www.mammakerr.com blog, as a platform for sharing parenting news, links and resources, complimented by some vaugue personal insight.
However, having visited so many fantastic mummy blogs over the past couple of years (some with photos, names, details, etc and some more general), I have come to the conclusion that, more often than not, those blogs that are more personal and have cute kiddie pictures have a more loyal following and plenty of lovely comments.
Therefore, in recent months, I have slowly begun to be a little more personal in my blog and have included some photographs and stories of my lovely twin girls.
Of course, like you say, there’s no hard and fast rules. I just think you should go with your own gut feelings, but with an air of caution.
Annette
PS I’m a new visitor to you blog, and I must say I like it very much.
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Amy - Mom Spark Reply:
February 20th, 2010 at 10:51 am
@Annette Kerr, Thank you so much for commenting and for your sweet words.
It’s a TOUGH issue and decision to make.
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