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
