Security and Privacy

I started looking for blogs by other children around Kyle's age. I found very few and mostly ran across blogs talking about the safety of children blogging. Most sites give some safety rules for parents to follow when children blog. The basic rules are:

1. Never offer personal information.
   
2. Use sites you can password protect.
3. Screen content and monitor the blog.
   
4. Work on the blog with your children.
   

Have I followed these rules? No I haven't followed the first two rules, but I have followed the second two.

1. Kyle's name, first and last, is used on the site. I don't see this as a problem. Maybe, because we tend to live in a protected environments overseas. Will I feel the same when we live in America? I hope so. I think the value of using his name gives him a strong sense of identity and confidence. I don't like the secrecy of some code name. What do we teach our children when we ask them to use a code name or to hide their identity? Once, we convince them that acting in secrecy and having a different identity is expected on the Internet how far will they take it?
   
2. Kyle's site is open to all who want to read it. Frankly, this is part of his motivation for writing. He loves to look at the map and see people from around the world are accessing his blog. He would see less motivation for writing and writing well, if he thought it was just for family and friends. The fact that so many young bloggers (under 10) seem to be hidden away somewhere, doesn't allow Kyle to look at other children's blogs. This is sad, because it cuts of the social aspect of blogging.
3. I screen and monitor everything that goes on the blog. All comments come through my email. Basically, no one can communicate with Kyle on the Internet, but through me. All of his blog entries are planned and are essentially writing lessons. This is different from some other blogs, but there is still a lot of personal content. The fact that I screen and monitor the blog allows me to break rules 1 & 2.
4. I work on the blog with Kyle. I talk to him about it and plan it with him. Will this work as he gets older? Will he want to have a more secretive web space? I hope not and I hope that the lessons set forth now will prepare him for honest and open relationships in the real and the virtual world.

I understand that there are predators out there, but I still believe in the overall goodness of human nature. I don't want to keep my children from the world and the world from them, because I am scared of a few people. This view might be idealistic, but I see greater risk in teaching children to get comfortable with secrecy and to write in generalities. Personal identity and personal pride are characteristics that are worth encouraging in young children.

About. com: Should you let your children blog?
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