I came across this post on Slashdot this morning about "Baby Blogs." Apparently, some people are worried that parents' sentimental (and often embarrassing) blogs about someone's "early years" may cause some big problems down the road. The article poses the question: But if, in the future, a prospective partner, friend or employer should type the child's name into Google, will they appreciate having so much of their childhood documented for all to read? I suppose this could be traumatic, but then again, so can Mama's Big Photo Album--not to mention home video collection!
The discussion tries to make a connection to "illicit" photographs of nude young children that caused a few art exhibits to be shut down. I guess somebody had better call the Catholic church quick; all of those cherubs have got to go.
Just out of curiosity, I did a quick Google scan for Baby Blogs. Here's what I found:
What a vile example! Check out Richard Gile's baby blog for Mia...She'll never make Executive VP with her Daddy's blog on public display.
Apparently this little guy is crazy about the Teletubbies.
Meet Miss Chloe. Let's hope that this blog doesn't surface when Chloe goes up for tenure.
Building your Baby's Ethos!
Yes, you don't want to be this guy's kid [http://www.ironycentral.com/babymain.html]who has been making fun of his little one since she showed up. Don't get me wrong, I think he's a FABULOUS writer and he's expressed the unglamorous parental joys that us non-parents really enjoy mocking. But she's going to have a hard time living it down if she locates it in Google's permanent record someday.
Think of all those LiveJournal kids who will have to live with the pictures of their butt they posted one Saturday night.
It's bad enough to have to live with the things I write. I can't even IMAGINE having to live with everyone hearing the audio from my first violin lesson (nobody should have to hear that) or the full-motion video of my first messy eating experience.
Then again, my 13-year old sister has had her whole life documented and seems to appreciate popping her baby videotapes in the machine and cueing up parts she's especially happy with. Maybe it will be fine.
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Stephanie Holinka
Weeblog, why don't you?
http://www.weeblog.com
thegrape@unm.edu
baby blogs - TMI!
I can really foresee at least one situation in which too much information about your child on the internet could pose problems for her later in life --
HEALTH issues.
Suppose you, as a young child, had to undergo health-related struggles: your mother talks about it all of the time in her blog to comfort herself.
A few years later, you go out to work; your employer looks you up and decides not to hire you as you are an insurance risk because of your earlier treatments.
The employer would NEVER even have to tell you WHY you weren't being hired; and many people do not divulge things about themselves, like a heart murmur, collapsed lung, etc., on a job application.
This becomes an even greater risk once the child enters puberty and begins having teen-aged problems. At this time, employers simply don't routinely check prison records, arrest records, psychiatric history, etc., because it is too costly; but what happens when that information is stored online by the "loved ones," and then archived at places like the Wayback Machine / Internet Archive?
Heheh---Baby Blogs are inevitable.
I really see these baby blogs as more like public "baby books," those old scrap books moms and dads buy and fill with trivia like, "First word," "Sat up all by him/herself at __ weeks," etc. C'mon. I can't imagine anything someone would rather blog about than their own freshly squeezed kiddo. We tend to write about what we care about.
I will admit that it may be embarrassing to read this stuff later, but for crying out loud, I'd like to think I was adult enough to handle it. :-) To be honest, I'd be flattered that my mum or dad cared enough about me to take an interest in keeping a blog. Don't you think it'd be kinda weird if you asked someone about his newborn child and were told quite sharply that it was "none of your business?" It is rather sad that we have come soo far away from old-style family communities that we now fear sharing stories about our children. True, some might say that the internet exposes these stories to far more than just family and friends, but then again, look at our modern towns and cities--I don't even know the names of the people who live a few yards away in the adjacent apartments, more the less everyone in the neighborhood. I've probably met cel4145 and culturecat 2 or 3 times in my life, yet know them much better than my next door neighbors!!
That's a good post about the health concerns. However, I wonder how many prospective employers that anyone would want to work for would actually indulge in such practices. What a creep!
Thining about this issue has actually convinced me that it may be a good idea for parents not to use the real names of their children. For much the same reason internet savvy people use nicknames (blacklily8, for instance) instead of real names, perhaps these parents ought to give their children handles, especially the highly mobile ones...heheh...