How to Keep Your Children Safe Online

As parents, how do you ensure the safety of your children online? I was pondering this question today when I once again had this dilemma: “Should I post pictures of my children on the Internet?”

I guess on one side of the spectrum is total naivete. There are people who–for whatever reason–will come to your blog and look at photos of your children for the wrong reasons (and I mean REALLY wrong reasons).

On the other extreme, you end up seeing danger behind every corner–virtual and otherwise. As much as this world is a dangerous place, incididence rates of truly scary things (like kidnapping) are still statistically very low.

What’s a caring parent to do? You want to use the Internet to update your family and show them all the accomplishments of your loved ones.

After reading this excellent post at Rocks in My Dryer, we made our decision.

Here are 5 reasons not to post pictures of your children on your blog or Web site:

1. You have no control over who sees your blog.
I wouldn’t take that deal with any of our kids photo albums…so why would I put the same pictures on my blog?

2. Any photos on your blog (including precious photos of your kids) can be downloaded and altered.
Altered how, you might ask. Actually, don’t ask, the answer is too horrifying.

3. You have safer alternatives to control access.
Check out MyFamily. MyFamily lets you create a password-protected family album to share photos and information. Even a photo sharing site where you control access (like Kodak’s EasyShare, Shutterfly, or Snapfish) are better.

4. Online privacy.
Take time to read or listen to this NPR story on online privacy and Facebook. I heard this live on the radio, and what stunned me was the idea that photo recognition software will eventually advance to the point where photos can be analyzed to determine the time, place, individuals in the photo. Now, I know that sounds a little bit like “Big Brother is watching you,” but online privacy is no joke. Think about what you can learn about someone’s life when you look at a picture (a picture is worth a 1,000 words, right?)

5. Caution trumps convenience.
Where’s the line between wisdom and overprotection? I look at this as a bike helmet. Now, I never grew up wearing a bike helmet when I rode. In fact, we didn’t even have carseats. It is more convenient to not do those things. But the fact is–bike helmets and car seats save lives. You probably don’t think too hard about putting your kid in a carseat or insisting on a bike helmet. Why would you treat the online safety of your child any differently? Take the cautious route that protects your kids.

Chances are you’ll never have a problem. Just like chances are in your favor when it comes to your child getting kidnapped. But we don’t let them wander the supermarket alone, do we? Take the more cautious route. It may, in the end, make an enormous difference to your family.