How do you explain internet safety to the older and well meaning generation? How do you convince friends and family NOT to use your child’s real name on Facebook or in blog comments? Well, this is how I am officially telling everyone via blog post. I think this sums it up nicely and hopefully without stepping on toes or hurting feelings.
We use nicknames for our children and plan to do so until they are old enough to write and manage their own internet presence and that’s a minimum of 13 per most social media and internet websites.
Dear Grandma’s, Family, and Friends Who Really Know Us,
I just want to bring something to your attention before you get mad or upset. Yes, I blog and often include one or more of my children in my blog posts. Yes, I share pictures of their faces online and include them on Facebook. I have also taken some basic internet safety precautions by giving them nicknames or online personas. Both their dad and I talked about this early on and felt that this was the BEST way to go!
This protects their identity and keeps them “unknown” when they grow up and want to break out in their own endeavors. It will be at that point THEY can let people know that they were so and so featured on their mom’s blog for x number of years or wrote x number review posts for their dad’s blog.
Please refrain from using their real names on Facebook or in blog comments. I will delete your comments without batting an eye. Not because I don’t appreciate your loving remarks but for the sake of our children’s safety and future I feel that this is BEST!
You may not realize that I have over 500 Facebook friends and almost 4K FB Page followers many that I have never met in real life but have collaborated with on blog projects. We also have over 20K people visiting our blog each month and feel that this small gesture of privacy is necessary.
For this same reason I have not blogged about field trips which might identify where we live even though we have done some awesome ones.
Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.
Thaleia
Och I HEAR you! I struggle with even putting up pictures of my kids. Online safety is a big issue and protecting your kids is important. I applaud you on this and have had the same talk with our family. I didn’t use face pics and it’s only been recently I’ve started “sharing” pictures. It scares me.
Bravo for educating family and friends.
~Honey
Absolutely! I do exactly the same for my own children regarding my blog.
I have much respect for you, what a great way to announce your position on this topic to your family without hurting their feelings. Thank you for sharing =)
Sounds like you are a wise mama! 🙂 How nice that you are strong enough to stand up for your convictions!
I have the opposite problem. My mother-in-law calls me to ask me not to post certain things that I would never have posted anyway. I have noticed that people are not very savvy sometimes about saying private things on Facebook.
I have deleted family/friend comments for the very same reason. I know it’s just a small measure of safety, but at least it is a start.
Julie,
Thank you for your kind comment. I thought it would be best to address the masses without pointing fingers, etc. Sometimes well meaning relatives don’t realize the danger in airing everything online.
I totally agree with you. I do not put my children’s names on my blog posts or on my FB page for my blog for safety reasons. I do on the other hand use their real names on my personal FB page because that is limited to people I know personally. Although with my essential oils business which I started recently, I have had to add some people I don’t know to my personal page in order to get them added to the FB oils groups, so I may have to reconsider my policy there. Thanks for the great post and I’m glad I found you on Good Morning Mondays.
Great post, I so agree with you and hear you on this one. Thanks for sharing this at Good Morning Mondays, what a blessing you are.
I do the same thing! Thankfully, there’s been only one instance of a family member using Baby Boy’s real name online. That was in the newness of his being here with us. Once I addressed that family member and explained, there hasn’t been another issue. I can get pretty particular about our privacy, despite the fact I share so much on the blog. Hun has a bit of a difficult time grasping my level of comfort in sharing so much….but he doesn’t share that much in person, so it makes sense. 🙂
great post! i am just returning to blogging since i’ve had my children. i now have to consider safety and different measures that I did before them.. thanks for this post! i think your rule would be a great one to follow!
Agreed. You can also edit comments on your blog or hide comments on FB. That’s what I do. So they are still there, but the wrong people don’t see the wrong information.
Thanks for hosting and taking time to stop by.
I have friends and even know bloggers who use their child’s name as a hashtag which kinda freaks me out a bit. So scary cause you just never know when someone would get obsessed with you, your blog, or child in an unhealthy manner.
I don’t even feel that this is very extreme since I do show my children’s pictures and I do use my real name but just a thin layer of privacy:)
Yes, I have no problem deleting, blocking or unfriending people if I don’t like what they share or say.
I can totally understand and agree with that. I have never used my children’s names on my blog either, and they are grown up! However, I didn’t use their names when they were younger either.
At first I thought you meant you didn’t use their names on your private fb page but then realized you were talking about your blog page, lol!
In the past, I deleted a few comments when people forgot and used their real names. I just wanted that measure of privacy. My kids, however, don’t care if I use their names or not, lol! Thanks for linking up to Making Your Home Sing Monday linky party.
Always so much to consider. Thanks so much for sharing at AMAZE ME MONDAY.
Blessings,
Cindy
I admire that you wrote this to tactfully let loved ones know where you stand on the issue.
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