It’s a great idea to also use misleading or incorrect information about kids – or anyone – whose privacy is important. When registering for social networking sites, keep a spreadsheet of birthdays that you use – I tend to use a different birthday for different sites, so that if I start getting birthday reminders/ads etc. from a third party, I can look at the chart and know who was selling data.
Get good at detective work – I had the experience recently (december) of trying to track down a student who had gone missing in real life using social networks, and happily that worked out well.

I was just thinking the same thing about my kid, again… I’m pretty much all the way out there, living online like that guy who publishes his SSN. At times it freaks me out. Which lead me to install security cameras with DVRs and an alarm at my house. After some serious souls searching a few years ago, I even went out and bought some actual protection, which is it’s own inherent internal security risk. Having a gun at the house is not the way I would have chosen to live.
At this point for me, it’s almost like there’s no turning back. And because of my own actions, I watch my kid closer than I think is necessary for her social development. Overprotective? Maybe. It’s kind of sad, really. But this is the information age, and security risks are far different than they used to be.
I’m not hard to find, and I am a proud parent. And just to throw it out there, I will shoot an intruder if you come to my house. Remember that if there are any freaks reading this *looks over shoulder*
That’s so old school, it’s actually embarrassing… but I made my bed and now my family has to lie in it.
I suppose the next step is to educate my child as much as possible eh? Don’t talk to strangers, never open the door, and don’t touch Daddy’s gun. Oh man what have I gotten myself into…

Just happened across this, and it was like reading something I had written. Your kids might be about the same age as mine, based on the Club Penguin reference.
The comment about friends being a risk you don’t think about is so true. But I’m guessing your kids are not really IM-ing and emailing their friends at school, because that’s where it becomes really problematic. I drummed into my daughter never to communicate with strangers online. Really, I went overboard perhaps.
In my case, a kid in my daughter’s peer group introduced several other kids into her email CC fields and also on IM. Suddenly, you have all these strangers with your kids’ email address and IM. The other kids start communicating with your kid. And since they’re “friends” of a friend, your kids just accept them. And they will. The entire class my daughter is in did exactly as she did.
Worst is when you can’t verify anything about the other kids, or even that they are kids. In my case, they were using anonymous Gmail accounts, so I couldn’t check to see the originating IP addresses to verify that one of these “kids” was in England as was claimed. Which actually would have been nice to know because we don’t live in England and this one kid was writing weird, probing questions that gave me chills. Google really should fix that anonymous thing. No one else does it.
Anyway, just thought this might help you. Tell your kids never to communicate with anyone they have never actually met in real life and consider their friend. “Friends of a friend” are a big problem, and I never thought of this until it happened.

I think there are lots people concerned with privacy and the free flow of information. I’m on Geni now and so are hundreds of family members including numerous kids.
You bring up some really good points.
Good article Danny.

Very good points there, Danny.
I’ve been thinking about the same, do I need seperate accounts on Flickr and YouTube for personal and work related stuff?
I was thinking about doing a travel blog about me and families travels and that raises alot of concerns about security. It’s difficult to have such a blog with out pictures of the kids, travel dates and location. I don’t want to let some potential waco restrict what I can do, but how much information is safe to put out there?

I’m not exactly a kid anymore, although I still get a little freaked when people I’ve never met before ask me questions about things in my personal life or past. I still haven’t got to grips with the merging lines of offline and online conversations, despite being weaned on the www. I’m dreading the day when I’m in your situation and would probably try to completely separate personal and work life online.

I sooooo feel your pain on this one. Drop me an email I can help you close one of the “contact points” that helped me figure out their names.

I agree the internet is filled with scoundrels, When my kids were young I gave them spy names, and when someone asked their name they used the spy name unless we told them that it was OK to use their real name. If I hear someone using their spy name around me and my kids I get ready for battle.

I inadvertantly used my daughters name on Twitter the other day and had the same concerns. Hard to know what the right balance is. — Derrick [Last name withheld]