Child Safety and Personal Websites

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admin
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Child Safety and Personal Websites

Post by admin »

A word of warning about these sites.

Reading the thread on another forum, and ignoring all the unnessary and pathetic attacks on this site, there is a very good underlying point made by some of the people posting on there. I'm speaking essentially about personal websites.

Some websites are traceable, and the traces show up some very personal information - such as home address and even home phone numbers. You will need to check to see if yours DOES show this information, just to ensure that your children are safe. (Not every website info comes up in the search - some just go back to your site provider - eg. Ntl). Notapushymum would be an obvious site for a dodgy person to try and look for a child contact, by it nature...so think! - with the info available in some personal sites, and contact details available with a bit of searching....well you get my drift.

While there are plenty of arguements both for and against having these sites, all valid, having one is still your personal right. PLEASE try and do so safely and be fully aware of the people who may be looking at them.

Also please note:
*ensure your children are fully aware of the dangers of going off with a stranger, and have passwords in place if necessary, just in case someone unexpected will be picking them up..
*If going on any castings, that are not known to you or your agent (students for instance) let someone else know where you are going before you go.
*Try not to let your child go off with anyone unknown, unless you are able to be within earshot, or sight of them. Some well known and reputable casting directors will not let you come with your child, in case it puts them off...so there may be exceptions to this, but your agent will know which ones are OK to go with.
*Performing children have the natural tendancy to be very confident children, from time to time, give them a little reminder of the dangers of talking to strangers (especially important with younger children)!

There are probably some other points i should add..but i can't think of them right now...so i will add them as I think of them.

Please review this post from time to time, just to gently remind yourselves of some thoughts on protecting your children. Ours are some of the most vunerable, simply because they are so outgoing....
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shanelle2
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Post by shanelle2 »

Thanks admin,I have been thinking about this for a while and have now taken of the link to my childrens website.

After all I only did it for fun, so family living in Canada and France and also Grandparents could look at the recent activity so its not as if I was hoping to up their profile etc.

Thants only my personla opinion though so for others happy to leave their lovely sites on here its a personal choice :)
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Pebbles
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Post by Pebbles »

Mine has come down for the same reason...and funily enough was made up for a very similar reason!

I initially put it on here because so many people asked, but anyone can PM me for it again if they are interested...

I did check however..and the blueyonder address didn't come back to me tho..
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Post by shanelle2 »

After posting my above message I went onto the stage webtalk to read what had been said (very nosy,I am) and I must say how upsetting some of their posts are.

Yes,as admin said there have been some very good points made and I have as I said removed my website as a result BUT........

:shock: :shock:
Emma, mum to 4 girls.
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Grace125
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Post by Grace125 »

which website was the info you found on?
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proudmum
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Post by proudmum »

the stage....stagetalk on "can you help"
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Post by rachw1 »

Remember that even though a site isn't 'linked' from anywhere it can still get picked up in search engines, or the URL can get passed around if it has previously been posted somewhere. The best thing to do is to password protect your entire site (or the directory in which the bits you want to keep hidden are) and then no-one can get to it without having the security details. Most webhosting accounts will let you do this.

Another option if you want to show off pics of your kids to friends and family is to set up a Flickr account - http://www.flickr.com - the basic account is free and you can mark photos as for 'friends and family' or 'family' only. Then if someone wants to see your photos they have to join Flickr as a free member (it's part of Yahoo now and I think you can use a Yahoo login) and then you add them as a friend or family so they can see the photos.

R.
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cathyuk
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Post by cathyuk »

There is also myspace too.
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proudmum
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Post by proudmum »

Admin i have just read your reply, well said and well defended =D> =D> =D> :D :D
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Post by Aladdinsane »

...
Last edited by Aladdinsane on Wed Apr 05, 2006 11:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by rachw1 »

Aladdinsane - I'm a 'professional techie' - I don't post about what I do here as I don't want to link my online life too much with my daughter. I've frequently seen instances of non-linked development sites being picked up by search engines. One possible cause is the toolbars (Alexa toolbar et al which people install in their browsers) sending information regarding sites back to the search engines. It *does* happen and I could list a number of instances where I have seen it happen, and we certainly never advise that anyone 'hides' sensitive information by just not publishing the URL.

With the rise in social bookingmarking apps and people using these by default to bookmark sites rather than browser bookmarks, this is another place that supposedly non-linked sites show up, as once people are using to adding things there they may do so without thinking. You might be happy with your method and that's fine - other people's mileage may vary.

R.
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Post by capetownmum »

Well that just went so way above my head I didn't even see it!

Well done to your daughter rachw1...........the girls were so glad to see each other this am ........big hugs all round!! Tell her a big WELL DONE from us.
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Re: Child Safety and Personal Websites

Post by obsteve »

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp

type in the name of your LOs personal website to see if your address/phone number is visible

I would like to see all children's details off databases and off the internet.

I believe there must be a safer and saner way to get our kids into performance
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Re: Child Safety and Personal Websites

Post by TheEngineer »

Just a heads up on one of the things you can do, some domain registration companies allow you to remove your details from "personal sites" so if you do a whois search then nothing will show up.

Companies are not allowed to do this, just individuals.
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