Archives from 2002-2006

Dec

2

Moderation

Hey, thanks for your supportive comments re: Pervy Flickr Freak. A few hours after I posted the entry and also reported the account to Flickr, the guy’s account was listed as no longer active. I’m not sure why, if it’s because Flickr took action or what, but hooray.

I’ve been thinking about this little incident, not that it was some big nasty traumatic event but just thinking about the bigger picture of my family’s information and photos being available to anyone, regardless of their interest. The entire subject of privacy on the internet is a slippery continuum of choices, and I don’t think there are really any hard and fast rules that apply to everyone. Some people use a complicated pseudonym system that requires its own Cast of Characters explanation page on their blogs and never post personal photos, some people use their full names and their kids are more recognizable than Suri Cruise.

Where common sense and paranoia overlap is different for everyone, I think. I tend to take the approach of accepted risk, in that I accept there’s a chance something ooky will happen as a result of my blog in the same sense I accept there’s a chance that I will get in an accident while driving Riley to the playground. Which is to say I believe it’s unlikely that it will happen, and the reward outweighs the choice of refusing to leave the house.

We live in a world that offers an infinite selection of things to freak out about when it comes to the safety and well-being of our kids, and it’s hard not to spend all your time as a parent dwelling on the various horrible possibilities. My goal there is to find an area of reasonable precaution and awareness, and stop myself from spiraling into pointless anxiety—because otherwise it’s never a cough, it’s always meningitis. You know? It’s not a bruise, it’s leukemia; it’s not a tantrum, it’s a major emotional disorder; it’s not a creepo on Flickr, it’s someone parked outside my house furiously jerking his meat while waiting to snatch my kids, because he saw them on the internet and the temptation was just too great.

Moderation in all things, I guess. Although maybe a No Naked Heinies Policy isn’t such a bad idea.

In other news, it snowed this weekend and transformed everything into a magical wonderland of beauty and peppermint white mochas.

Sadly, it all turned to rain this morning—I am currently ignoring Dog’s piteous whines at the back door, because she appears to have found a puddle of muddy slush and is now cleverly disguised as a Brown Dog—but not before we went out and got our Christmas tree in the snow: