First of all, happy independence day!! With the horrible things going on in Iran, I am very aware of how lucky we are to live in a free country. We’re all from different walks of life, yet we can coexist without fear of being persecuted or even killed. God Bless America!!
Also, we are home from our mini-vacay.
It was just a short 3-day trip to the beach, but we had a lot of fun. It’s really tough going on vacation with a potty-trainer, especially when said potty-trainer gets “traveler’s diarrhea” {I can’t believe I just typed that, but I’m just keeping it real, yo}. But we did the best we could, and we’ll get back to our usual routine next week.
On a totally different note … I recently installed Google Analytics into my website, and I encourage anyone who has a blog to do this. ASAP.
The biggest thing I learned is that some people have gotten to my blog by searching for terms that have NOTHING to do with my blog. Some of these search terms have made me very wary of having pictures of Emma on my blog.
I have struggled with this for years.
I often wonder if people are using pictures of her for reasons that I would not be happy about. I found out about a teenager who was using pictures of Emma on her personal website, and then it also happened to a Flickr friend recently. I don’t really understand why someone would want to pass off my kid as their own kid – but it’s happening. It’s gross and disgusting and seriously messed up.
On one hand, I feel like stuff is going to happen no matter what I do. But on the other hand, I would like to try to protect myself and Emma as much as possible.
I go back and forth. Some days, I feel like scrapping this blog and starting over with a private blog. Some days, I feel like making every single picture of her private. Most days, I just try to use good judgment and try not to worry about it.
It’s hard, because my sole job as a mom is keeping my child safe. I don’t want to do anything that will EVER put her at risk.
And I wonder if it’s fair to post pictures of her without her permission.
But on that note, I can’t keep her inside forever. I can’t shroud her in a cloud of privacy – we go out in the public every day, and in some ways, that’s even more scary since people could potentially follow us home or grab her from me.
On Flickr, no one knows where I live.
In the meantime, I’ve gone back and made some posts in my blog password-protected. I will be doing this in the future, as well. If you are a regular blog reader and see a post that you want to read, please email me for the password.
This doesn’t mean I’ll never post a picture of Emma publicly or close my Flickr account, but there are just certain things I’ll keep private to only people I know and trust.
I’m going to keep thinking about this and praying about it. I may eventually scrap this blog and go to something different, but for now, this is what I’m comfortable with.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve looked into my stats also, and it concerns me to have people come to my blog for strange reasons. For my kids safety, and my own.
I’ve used my kids names on the blog and pictures, but am now using nick names and have also thought I need to start using a water mark on all my pictures… although this totally sucks, because it takes away from the picture, I would hate to think that someone was using pictures of my boys for nasty reasons.
We just can’t be too careful I guess. I feel cheated a bit … and feel like I’m cheating my faithful Mommy blogger friends, but my kids safety has to come first.
Sooooo, I think your post just talked me into using water marks on all my pictures. Unless there is a way to remove a water mark.. making the process completely unaffected?
Nell
I don’t remember how I found your blog , but I love it . Mostly your photography, its really great and your daughter is so darn cute! I do understand what you are saying about your privacy though. I hope you dont make any decision too soon. I would hate to loose a great blog to read!
That stinks that there are people out there who do these types of things. I watermark my photos and have recently disabled the right click so they can’t be downloaded. I’m sure they will still figure out a way to get to the pics if they really want to though. That is a nice feature to password protect a post…I don’t think I can do that with blogger. Check out this post of mine about this subject. A blogger found her family photo being used for a foreign ad campaign! http://ourdailybigtop.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-i-learned-this-week.html
I totally understand you here! I’ve had trouble recently with this same thing at Flickr. I immediately went in and made most of my kids’ photos F&F and some private. I hated to do it, but decided I didn’t want my kids’ photos being used for God-knows-what…..uggh! It just makes me sick to know that there are so many crazies out there. I don’t have my blog linked to my Flickr anymore, unless it’s friend and family and I try not to show my kids faces to the public. I went through every contact and made them my contact also whether or not I liked their photography because the problem I was having was with a one way contact that I just happened to stumble upon. If I would have marked him as my own contact to begin with, I would have known immediately that he was posting my photos as his own. The worst part about it is that Flickr sucked at handling the problem! I’m also trying to come up with a watermark that i like to put on all my pics even though that is another irritating step to have to take.
It’s not fun to have to check and double check because of weirdos on the loose, but definitely better to be safe than sorry, I suppose. It’s just hard to find middle ground on this issue…..I’m not too sure what to do either :(
Gosh, this is such a scary reality! I am completely going to download that program.
I agree, watermarks take away from the picture, but you will still have the original on your own computer.
Kelli, I love your blog. I have been reading for a while ever since I joined Diapper Swappers. I hope you do what is best for your family, but I will miss this blog if it disappears.