Should you let your children blog? How do you make sure they stay safe online? This article of just over 550 words gives parents the information necessary to make an informed choice.

So, you have a blog and your child wants to start one, too. The question is, how good an idea is it to let your kids have their own blog? Is it safe? Being aware of the dangers and knowing how to protect your kids is the best way to aid you in making this very important decision.

Anytime your child is online, he or she can be in danger if you don’t teach them what’s what. The same goes for blogging. When your preteen starts writing about her day and putting the posts up for the world to see, it’s important that she knows what should be left out of her posts. It’s a good idea to help your child set up the blog and to subscribe to the RSS feed so you have a good idea of what is going on.

Most kids will be using a free service, like Blogger, which means their blog will most likely be appearing on Google, since these get picked up faster than private domains. If your 13 year old writes a post on the latest Transformers movie, there’s a good chance that people looking for information on Transformers will stumble across his blog. It’s important to let your kids know that it won’t necessarily just be their friends reading what they write.

While you may not want to alarm your kids, you shouldn’t let them just jump into blogging without briefing them on safety. Lay down some ground rules and if your child is still fairly young, make sure you stay on top of what they are involved in online. Read their blog, even if you don’t let them know that you are. Here are a few guidelines to get you started:

No identifying information. Stay away from town names, school names, etc. If your child wants to go by their own name, stick with the first name. Last names should never be used, not for your child or anyone else he blogs about. Many bloggers tend to go with nicknames, for this reason. For example, your daughter might write about her best friend “Girly Girl” or her crush “Hunk”. This keeps things nice and anonymous and means that pedophiles won’t be able to easily find your little blogger.

No contact info. For kids, it’s probably best not to give out any contact information, not even email. If someone wants to talk to them, they can do it in the comments section . . . and you should be reading the comments to see if anything suspicious is popping up. Phone numbers and mailing addresses are definitely a no-no.

Photos. Whether or not you allow your child to publish pictures on their blog depends on your level of paranoia. Some photos, like of the family dog, are probably safe, but you might not want pictures of your family up there. Photos with obvious identifying information such as a “Welcome to Pittsville” sign in the background, should be avoided.

In the end, it is the decision of the parent. If you feel that your child is responsible enough to be careful online, then by all means go ahead and let him or her blog. If you have doubts, it might be better to wait. Just remember that some very successful internet marketers, such as Carl Ocab, are barely into their teens, your child could be next!

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