Do You Post Photos of Your Kids Online?

Fly F. @Anjilla Y - as a computer security professional (many years of experience and a CISSP), I have to tell you straight up that there is no such thing as a completely secure network. Anyone who is telling you they have one is either stunningly naive or flat-out lying. I'm betting on the second one; anyone who knows enough to set up a network also knows perfectly well that there is no such thing as a completely secure one. Not even an air-gap makes a network completely secure. I haven't looked at Mudpies and Butterflies in particular, but at a quick glance I see no reason no think it's significantly more secure than any other social networking website. On the one hand, they ask for more information at registration than most websites, and they verify it with the school before approving the sign-up (that would be a good thing, if they do). On the other hand, anyone who is a member can presumably log in from anywhere, the sign-up page itself is not encrypted, and they even have a Facebook page. Plenty of attack surface there for anyone. I wonder if all their data is encrypted at rest? Almost no one does that because it's harder and more expensive. I don't mean to single them out - they seem more diligent than most places - but they are far from "completely secure." A network that approaches complete security isn't very useful to the public, because for starters it will be air-gapped from the Internet and very few people will have access to it even when on-site. Even that is not completely secure; it's just very secure. As others have said. it's good to take care about what pictures you put online (I don't put up bathtub pics, for example) and to restrict who can see them. That's hardly bulletproof, but often you don't have to outrun the bear, just the other people it's chasing. Candace F. makes a good point: even if you have good security practices, people you know can be the weak link in the chain, either posting pics and names online without permission or even telling you, or by having a pathetic password that is easily cracked. Thousands of social networking and free email accounts get taken over that way every hour of every day. Once an attacker is in one of a person's accounts, they are often quickly in all of them, either because the same weak password is used everywhere, or because once in they find enough info to get the other accounts. One solution I recommend for having good passwords is use a utility such as Last Pass (that's the one I use) and make your passwords as long and as complex as any site will allow, and have a single long, complex access password or your encrypted password vault (note; don't use the Firefox built-in; passwords *can* be recovered from it). For example, my default length for site passwords is 30 characters, mixed case, with numbers and punctuation. I'm even considering making it longer, but that's probably good enough to outrun the other people the bear is chasing. Some sites don't allow a password that long, or worse, that doesn't contain punctuation. I've seen some that limit you to 10 alphanumeric characters. The cracking time on a password like that - even if random - is extremely short. - 07/27/2011

Ted K. getting past privacy settings, especially on facebook, is relatively simple. and what digital land grab? facebook allows a name to be used by multiple people. your three year old and nine month old both have blogs? ohhhkay. - 06/04/2011

John F. A question for the parents that withhold consent for group and event pictures for extracurriculars, are you or your child asked to stand out of group/ team pics so the rest of the group can be posted online? Not meant to be a condemnation, just a question of procedure. I see both sides, concern for the misuse of images online and maintain privacy for your child versus a desire to celebrate achievements and share with friends and family. I have been involved in academic competition events and was initially surprised by the request for a photo release from all of my team members, now it's just one more form. - 04/26/2011

Anjilla Y. I use Mudpies & Butterflies, it is a safe, completely secure network that connects parents to educators and administrators. It creates a safe online school community where I can go online and see updates in the classroom while my daughter is at school. You can post your own pictures as well, along with blogs and areas where parents can connect with one another. And the great thing is only members of the community can view it, no outsiders. I bet you can even create your own "family" community page rather than an entire school page. Check it out at www.mudpiesandbutterflies.com - 04/15/2011

Katie M. I would never post photos of my kids on line for any perv to see! I don't allow their schools or extra curricular activity groups to do so either. If my kids want their photos out there for the world, they can make that choice when they are adults. - 04/01/2011

Tiff Y. The best way to prevent problems is to not publish the photos that could be questionable.. the password point helps too.. but hackers are smarter and smarter everyday. We can't live in fear all the time, so being smart about how and what we post is the best advice. ALSO.. you can post a header on all you pages that state NO ONE HAS YOUR PERMISSION TO USE YOUR PHOTOS AND ANYONE WHO DOES WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW. Laws do exist, but if you failed to state that people do not have your permission then they are cleared.. - 03/30/2011

P D. Being a father (and also a computer engineer) of 4 year old daughter I am not too worried about strangers and pedophiles. I am more worried about the possible embarrassment/annoyance my daughter is going to have when she grows up and her pictures/videos popping up every search result of her name. Unlike our generation, kids of today's generation are growing up in an age when everything is in online. It's not like the my own toddler age when the only place my pictures (some of them were weird) were available was my parents' family albums (which were carefully stored and viewed by only friends and relatives). Let me put it this way: today when I search my own name in Google, the only thing comes out the things I myself posted online (not my parents). I want it to be same way for my daughter too. And yes, I upload lots of videos and pictures online, but they are all private and the only people who see are the people I know. - 02/28/2011

Candice F. Hi I just found out that someone has posted a photo of my husband and son on their blog. Without asking, using their names, I was/am outraged that someone would do this, when I don't even post their photos online. Only the dog and I have his permission. Thankfully, the husband and son were fully clothed :) - 11/08/2010

Jeff P. Matt ... very true. I know that I've posted many, many photos of my boy online (much to his chagrin later in life) and started to think about this a bit more. Honestly, I saw a "Law and Order" episode last year about people stealing photos and somehow the parent could be responsible for some heinous crimes that made me think about the types of pictures I've posted for my family to see. Buzz ... thanks for the article and the tip about Kinzin. Will definitely look into that. - 10/22/2010

Matt H. It's funny because I read that survey too and the post on Mashable. It immediately made me wonder whether or not I was being a responsible parent. But you make a good point, that you just have to be smart about it. Putting those naked tub videos on a password is the first step. What will be interesting is when this new generation runs for office and pics from when they were babies start to come out. - 10/22/2010