Blogs are the hottest thing on the internet and everyone wants
to try them -- even our homeschooled kids. But all the stories
about MySpace and online
blogging websites make parents worried about their child's safety
when they have an internet presence.
Blogs are an awesome tool. Just like any tool, you can take
precautions to make it safe, and if you understand it and know
how to use it, it does exactly what you want it to. If you hand
a child a drill without explaining safety measures, it's very
similar to allowing a child to have a blog or website without
looking into how they work safely.
Here are some ways to avoid trouble when you or your child
have a blog or other web-based presence. Once you know how to
use a blog and what your options are, blogs are as safe as any
tool, and very useful.
If you can avoid it, try not to join a large-scale blog service,
unless it has very specific options to keep your blog private
(a good example is Blogger.com
where you can turn off the "listing" service). The
problem with teens having blogs does not stem from the mere existence
of their website, but how they are easily accessible by the general
population with the blog site's search function. On many of these
massive blog websites, a blogger's bio is easy to find. If you
keep the blog private, or don't make the bio accessible, it contains
the same amount of privacy as a regular website, and there is
little chance that an uninvited guest would find a child's blog.
Any blog program or site you choose to use should also have
several options on who can leave comments. For my blog, I have
it set to ask me for approval for all posts, unless someone's
email address is on my "friends" list, in which case
they can post without my approval, and I just receive a notice
instead.
If your blog is one the thousands on a blog site, avoid the
function where you can link to other people's blogs. Also avoid
getting involved in the "popularity" aspect of blogging.
Many blog services have incentives to get as many people as possible
to read or link to your blog. That is guaranteed to attract unknown
readers, spam and phishers. On the other hand, if the reason
you want to make a blog is to be popular, then you might consider
using a pseudonym or omit any reference to the child herself
so that it's basically anonymous (except for the people who know
it's you).
If you decide to host your own blog you won't have these issues.
But you do have to know some HTML, have your own server on which
to host it and install all the software on your own. This is
the option I have chosen for my blog so that I have total control
over content, and I'm not searchable on any blog sites. I get
some weird people posting once in a while, but the vast majority
of my viewers are from the elists where I post, my friends and
family. Even though I'm not using a large blog website to host
my site, I still don't use my name, address or email address
in my entries or in my menus. If you don't know who I am, and
you want to know, you'll have to do a bit of research. Most people
who are looking for trouble don't want to exert this much effort.
If a spam program finds your blog or website link, they phish
for email addresses and places to make comments. So, if you need
to put an email address, do it like this: myemail @ myemail(dot)com
or something else cryptic that won't be easily snagged by a program.
You're also likely to get spam on the comments part of the
blog (even if your blog is private, because bots can find pretty
much any website if there's a link to it somewhere in cyberspace).
That's one of the general disadvantages of having a blog. However,
you can easily delete spam with the comments management section
of the blog software. And, if you don't want comments at all,
you can just turn them off. Although, much of the point of a
blog is to have comments open. There are also some blog software
that have the option to require any commenters to be logged in
to your website.
Even if you take precautions and understand the software,
nothing compares to being involved with your child. If it's clear
on your child's blog that Mom and Dad read the blog regularly,
and have ultimate veto power on any posts or comments, you can
almost guarantee the safety of your child's web-presence.
So, don't fear blogs. They are a wonderful tool. But like
any other potentially dangerous tool, knowledge of how it works
and parental supervision are the key. Once you have the safety
aspect covered, there's no end of possibilities of what you can
do with a blog as a source of homeschool learning and fun.
Bio: Tammy maintains her own blog, is currently working on
a website for her professional projects, as well as writing a
book about the true identity of the modern homeschooler. You
can email her at tammy @ jabober(dot)com.
HomeSchool California Magazine Editor - http://www.hsc.org
Tammy's blog: http://www.tammytakahashi.com/
