Pearls & Internet Safety

Really now – no clever connection between the two.

 

I recently let Maddy wear my pearls – she felt pretty special. Though, in true Maddy fashion the pearls were not enough, and she has been asking for my diamond engagement ring since.  I selected this photo to share because I like the concentrated look on her face.  Her cousin A is a tongue-out concentrator.  She favors the pursed-lip method – like her Dad.

 

On another note:

In my role as an information specialist (no kidding, that is my official title), I teach kids the many potential dangers of the Internet.  Even though most sites that could cause harm to students are blocked by our institution’s filter, we still have the responsibility to teach “Internet Safety.”  I constantly warn kids of the dangers of revealing too much personal information on social networking sites because “you just never know who may be accessing this information and what his or her intentions may be.”  Of course there is the danger of the predator, but the media can be just as dangerous.  I’ve seen the European media rip apart an American college kid currently accused of murder in Italy by taking information and pictures posted to her MySpace or Facebook pages and twisting & misconstruing it in ways that paint an awful picture of her, thus confirming that she “must” have committed the crime. Sad.  Hopefully we won’t be accused of murder or the like, but you never know.  I bet Amanda Knox never thought she would be sitting in an Italian jail in Tuscany for over a year while her trial is being prepared.

Well. . . gulp. . . .wait a minute – here I am doing the exact same thing, sort of.  I think my photos are pretty clean and my stories quite innocent.  With this in mind, the first step that I have decided to take is to stop using the real names of people.  I’ll keep those of our immediately family, but everyone else either won’t be identified with a name or will be with a pseudonym or with an initial. This is in an effort to ward off the potential predator who may choose to act on Maddy or any of the children in the blog. I may change a few other things as well, but I am still thinking of ways to change without hurting the writing -- difficult because, for me, good writing includes the details.

But. . . You. Just. Never. Know.