Mine just comes up with 1 link when I google it. Thats to the blog.

Sharon

Surely in this day and age we should all be sensible enough not to use our real names

We repeatedly warn our children to be careful when they're on the internet and constantly advise them not to give away information about themselves (never divulge real name, images etc - as adults we surely apply the same criteria to ourselves).

well Im not going to change my namebut glad liz did bring it to light from now on I know not to give away too much

I have become dbd33, it's more my identity than whatever my birth name is.

I don't think I'll bother searching all 66,000,000 hits.

The thing is, when you google your name, you know if all those differnet areas of interest that come up are related to you alone, If I did it I wouldnt know if it was 20 other people all using the same handle, so unless you are posting personal details on 20 different fora, no-one should be able to stitch together much of a picture of you anyway.

I dont much care anyway, I figure "bad people" will be able to find out stuff about you if they want anyway, so what does it matter if I give vague details here about roughly what my income and expenses are, where I live, who I bank with. I dont think there is enough to do any real harm, and if it helps a few people make a better informed decision on emmigrating then its worth it.

Where I do draw the line is posting recognisable recent pictures of my kids. That was part of the deal with the witness protection people...no not really.

Why not post them?

My granddaughter's Mom freaked out a few months ago becuase they all had pages on My Space or something similar with photos of themselves. Then she herself opened a page on Face Book and has posted pictures of my granddaughter and her other child!!

Mind you, I have never understood WHY its bad to post pictures of kids on the Internet. I can understand if you identified their name and address etc. but if its just a photo on a board - what can someone do with it? After all a child molester would only have to stand outside any school with a camera in a car and take photos of children if he or she really wanted to - it wouldnt be hard to find photos of anonymous children.

Maybe they're not very nice to look at.

I wont bore you with the details, but lets just say that we know how paedophiles operate and groom their victims, and we have no intention of helping them find an "in"

Not for me to say I have posted pictures before....just out of date ones. Kids change all the time at that age.

If it's just "I'd rather not", fair enough, but I'm with Liz in not understanding the harm of it.

I'd be seriously angry with my parents if they posted pics of me on the internet. I would consider it a violation of my privacy.

I dont want to get into it, but will say that we as a family have experience of knowing how paedophiles operate and groom their victims, and we have no intention of helping them find an "in"

Do not post pictures of kids that can be attributed to you or your family, and certainly never with names or any sort of personal details / geographic information that could be used by a peadophile to make them seem like they are familiar with you or your kids in order to make that first contact. The cases you read about in the media are seriously just the tip of the iceberg. Those people are out there 24/7, just looking for a way to make contact and get their foot in the door.

That sounds a bit paranoid to me, like forbidding them Catholicism for fear of priests. Still, I suppose the world needs more pictures of children like it needs more pictures of kittens.

Its only seems paranoid until you have some personal experience of it, then it becomes a sensible precaution.


Kitten pictures? Like this one you mean ?



or this one?


My, they are cute though arent they.