What are your thoughts?

[wayfaringwordhack]

Many people keep the names of their children, spouses, and various family members "secret" on their blogs, only referring to their loved ones by nicknames. For those of you who do, why do you do it? For those who don't, why not?

Also, what are your thoughts on photos of children on the Internet? Locked post, fodder for all, or not at all?

*just wondering if Little Bean will someday be known as _________ or if he/she will simply graduate to Sprout*

Comments

[frigg.livejournal.com]

I keep some names secret because I'm not sure if they'd want their names out there or not. Costas...just because I'm lazy to write Costas all the time. He knows I'm posting about him on LJ. ;)

I know some parents do it to protect their children from predators, and I guess that makes sense, if someone would want to prey on your child because of your blog, then it would be easier to lure it if the predator knows its name.

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

I used to not mention my kids by name, but my older two have LJ's and people who have them friended know their names anyway, so...

My youngest, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Some folks know me in real life anyway and call them by name, so I don't try to "protect" them now that they're older.

The only reason I did when they were younger is on the off chance that I ran into anyone that knew their father.

[sunflower-sky.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I feel it's silly to talk about someone specific without using his or her name. If later in life Hallel is embarrassed by things I write here I can friendslock or delete them. But I also don't talk about EVERYTHING, you know? I find it a little jarring when some LJ friends post about intimate details of their love/sex lives, even under friendslock... but then, where I come from it is not considered proper to discuss those things with friends just for the sake of talking about it.

We post pictures of Hallel on places like Facebook or under friendslock, where generally speaking only people who know us will see them. When posting on public forums I avoid using Hallel's name but I'm not really sure why. I have thought about whether to post pictures of the new baby as part of my birth story on those forums. I didn't last time and I'm not sure I will this time. But you know... a newborn baby is a newborn baby. If you've seen one red wrinkly coneheaded baby human you've seen 'em all... :P (Of course, Hallel was objectively perfect. :P Being born small helped with the coneheaded thing at least...)

I really can't imagine what someone could do with pictures of a baby or little kid on the Internet. But I'm a pretty innocent little flower. :-/

~D

[secritcrush.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I'm more on the side protecting the privacy of folk than not unless they've given permission to talk about them. I think this particularly applies to children - there's some folk I see ranting about their children and how frustrating/annoying/whatever and I just wonder how the children would feel reading that in a few years. (Or in the case of embarassing stuff, if their friends ever read it.) So for me it's not so much about not using their name, but sticking to positive and less personal items in public posts.

[clarentine]

I don't mention names in my journal if I can help it, whether or not the person has a LJ. We have little enough privacy in our interconnected world. Why reduce it any further?

(Datapoint: I'm also one of those who does not believe in bumper stickers or personalized license plates; I don't want to give those amongst whom I move any more grip on who I am than I must. It's none of their business...and the forced misspellings on the plates are more usually painful than funny.)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I use nicknames to preserve their anonymity. Three of my kids have LJs (only one updates frequently, though), but mainly I don't refer to them by their LJ names, either; I stick with the nicknames. (My youngest doesn't have an LJ... yet.)

I have posted pictures of my kids, and I think sometimes I haven't even locked it. I just don't identify them (and I ask them first, too). I don't post photos of them much, though, because my posts tend not to be about family stuff, etc.

[jongibbs.livejournal.com]

I can't speak for other folks, but I do it, partly out of respect for their privacy and partly because there's always some ratbag out in the world who'll happily take notes of someone's personal details and try to use them for fraudulent gain.

[learningtoread.livejournal.com]

I basically refer to Verity as V just because I'm lazy. ;-) Same as I oft sign me emails E. As for Boy, well, I've never been good at calling him by his real name, Rob. Since we started dating 11 years ago, he's been Jack to me in real life.

Only that confuses people. My brother, who I hadn't talked to in a while, actually thought I'd gotten a new husband when I called Rob "Jack" in conversation.

So....BOY. Yeah, I just call him BOY for those of you who don't actually know him. :C)

[navicat.livejournal.com]

G is G because his name is long and annoying to type... :D No actually it's because he prefers anonymity. But, when he finally gets his arse into gear and sets up his own website etc, then I'll be not only referring to him by name, I'll be linking to his website at every opportunity!

As for Navi, Chess and Gully... they don't seem to care ;)

[melinda-goodin.livejournal.com]

I don't post much about the other people in my family life, unless it's a call for support in a difficult situation. On the rare occasions that I do, I use their names, but I friends-lock the post. I do sometimes post photos, but again, behind a cut and friends-locked. It's partially a privacy thing, partially a nobody's-business-except-friends thing.

Photos -

[dlandon.livejournal.com]

locked, always. That's the way I tend to lean because there are sadly a lot of crazies out there.

Also, while the laws may differ in France, in the US you can't post a picture of a minor without parental consent (something I have to know for my dance teaching). So if you want to post a pic of Little Johnny with his best friend Maggie...be careful.

Names? Hm...I think it's kind of a toss-up. Far too many people on lj know me in real life for me to be able to keep my husband's name a secret. However, since lj can be hacked, and you have posted about the town you live in... don't know, whether or not you gave Little Bean a name on here is probably up to your own comfort level AND how many of us you know well enough to protect your privacy/know in real life.

- D

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

I keep family names secret because my last name is extremely uncommon, and so it wouldn't be hard for someone to put the two names together and ... well, who knows. For my friends, I'm not as anal because I don't use their last names, so there wouldn't be any reason to think someone could track something embarrassing back to them.

As far as the kids go, I will always use code names. It just lets me feel like I'm protecting them... and along that line, I'll never post pictures of other people's kids. Who knows what whack jobs are out there cruising the Internets, and once you put those pictures up, they're out of your control for good. So, I will never be responsible for something inappropriate happening with a picture of The Niece, The Nephew, Rupert, or any of my friends' children.

[rabiagale.livejournal.com]

I use nicknames for my kids in public posts and friendslock any photos I put up of them. I'm trying to protect their privacy. They didn't ask for a writer-blogger mom. :P