New parents wonder about posting, tagging
Dear Amy: As new parents, my husband and I are concerned about protecting our child's online privacy.
Our friends run the gauntlet from creating Facebook and Twitter profiles for their child the day they are born, to not even allowing their child's photo to be taken with a smartphone.
We made one request when our baby was born: Please do not post our child's name together with her photo on social media.
We think this is a reasonable, easy-to-remember request and provides at least a measure of privacy for our child, who has a unique name. That way, at least, someone who Googles her name doesn't get her photo with it.
However, on our baby's first birthday, a family member posted her name, photo and "Happy First Birthday" in a Facebook post and tagged my husband and me.
In a single post, they gave her first and last name, the names of her parents (including her mother's maiden name), together with her photo and date of birth.
We politely asked her to take it down, which she did. This is a recurring problem, though.
Is it realistic to ask others to respect the privacy of our child? Does our name-photo separation rule even make a difference? How do we get our Facebook-frenzy family to remember our caveat? Your advice, please!
-- Privately Proud Parent
Dear Parent: It is realistic, and your responsibility, to ask people to respect your child's privacy. And -- it is smart. However, you can expect some people to disregard your wishes, intentionally or accidentally.
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