I think that it's a good idea not to post public pictures of your kids along with their names -- especially their last name. My cousin used to have a blog she called "the (their last name) family", and the web address was her and her husband's first names. It was something they started to keep in touch with family. But of course she had names and pictures of her kids -- that was the whole point of the blog. She didn't want to lock the posts because lots of family without blogspot accounts followed it. When it occurred to her that there might be some risk, she renamed the blog "Little Adventures". I think not having the family's full name online is a decent precaution. If you are locking your posts, you're that much safer.
I'm with Neal: what people do with ordinary pictures of my kids, however unsavory, doesn't actually hurt my kids in most cases. The real message from that episode of Oprah seemed to be that people who download child porn are supporting horrific, unspeakable acts child abuse. And we should be concerned about the mental health of anyone who finds pictures of child torture arousing. Parents just need to be aware that anything they put online is public, and they need to be really clear about teaching older children what that means, so those kids don't ruin their own lives. I'm sure my mom will be showing pics of my kid to everybody in church, at the grocery store, etc. The internet is really just a big version of that, except people can make their own copies. Unless your being stalked by papparazzi, it's probably going to be ok.
I'm with Neal: what people do with ordinary pictures of my kids, however unsavory, doesn't actually hurt my kids in most cases. The real message from that episode of Oprah seemed to be that people who download child porn are supporting horrific, unspeakable acts child abuse. And we should be concerned about the mental health of anyone who finds pictures of child torture arousing. Parents just need to be aware that anything they put online is public, and they need to be really clear about teaching older children what that means, so those kids don't ruin their own lives. I'm sure my mom will be showing pics of my kid to everybody in church, at the grocery store, etc. The internet is really just a big version of that, except people can make their own copies. Unless your being stalked by papparazzi, it's probably going to be ok.
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