New dad Mark is concerned about posting his daughter's name on the Internet
Categories: Just for dads, Health & safety, Gadgets & tech
BloggingBaby reader Mark writes:My wife and I are expecting our first daughter in May so needless to say I'm very excited passing the time by looking for cool things online to do in preparation. I have a very common name so I was never able to get the domain name, so excitedly I purchased our daughter's name with a dot com. Very cool, I thought. Then I came across your site and it got me thinking, if I have pictures of her up there, with her name, it might be easy for someone she doesn't know to come up to her and pretend they do. Of course, this will be years from now, but it still worries me. Was I premature in purchasing the domain? Do you have any suggestions as to how I can utilize this website and not worry about strangers utilizing it as well?
Congratulations, Mark! Kids are awesome. Purchasing the domain is very cool. She must have an uncommon name to be able to get the dotcom version!
Personally, I doubt that the problem you mention -- of someone seeing her picture on the internet, actively seeking you out, and posing as someone who knows her -- would ever happen. Statistically speaking, she's more likely to be harmed by a family member than a stranger from the internet (no offense). According to a 2000 report by the U.S. Department of Justice, 93% of people who sexually assaulted a child were a family member or acquaintance. And kidnapping composes less than 2 percent of all violent crimes against juveniles reported to police.
For me that's a very distant secondary concern. The main reason I don't use their names is so that when their high school enemies (or buddies) Google their names they won't find a bunch of potentially embarrassing stories and pictures. I try not to write stuff that I think will mortify them, but who knows? Whether you decide to use the domain now or not, in just 10-15 years she'll want a website of her own, maybe even a blog (or whatever they call them in 2016). A domain with her own name would make a nice gift. And if you do decide to use it now and you're really concerned about privacy and safety, you can always password-protect it so that only people you trust can view it.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
eden 2-27-2006 @ 4:07PM
Purchasing a domain doesn't mean you have to put anything at that domain. If you're uncomfortable using it at first, sit on it for a while until you decide what to do. Or just put up a "welcome" kind of page.
You could use it as an online birth announcement. You could password-protect it and e-mail the password to friends & family. I understand your safety concerns; I use a pseudonym online but a small amount of work can turn up my real info. As to embarassing your kids, you're going to embarass them anyway.
I completely agree that she might want the domain when she's older. She might design web graphics, write stories or do other creative work and use the domain for her portfolio, for example. I don't think buying the domain was premature. Having your head about you in what you do with it (and you seem to be thinking things through) will go a long way to preserving her privacy and safety.
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Caitlin 2-27-2006 @ 4:50PM
We have our family surname domain, and my son also has a somewhat common name that he shares with a former Secretary of the Treasury and a baseball player. I'm not too worried about him popping up on the first page of a google search for his name. On the other hand, I have a relatively uncommon name, and pop up as the first result on Yahoo, the first three on MSN, and the 3rd and 4th on Google.
You might consider putting a robots.txt file on that domain. The major search engines (google, yahoo, etc) tell you what to paste there so their bots won't crawl your site.
The other thing you have to be careful of with domains, is that someone can do a whois on it, and turn up your home address and phone number if you supplied it during registration. In theory, ICANN can take away your domain if you supply false info, but I don't know how this would work if you supplied a dummy company name and used a po box for the address.
I would keep the domain. It's only going to get harder to get a good domain name and I'm sure she'll appreciate it when she's older. It's not that expensive to register and park a domain until she's ready to use it.
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AJ 2-27-2006 @ 4:57PM
I share Mark's concern. My baby photo blog is unadvertised and password protected. On my public blog I identify people by using pseudonyms. I've only posted a few public photos of my daughter, but at such an early age the images would be of little use for identifying her 10 or 20 years from now.
My advice is to just sit on the domain and wait. Or, password protect the entire domain so the outside world has no inkling of what's there.
As for buying the domain for your daughter's own future use, keep in mind that we might not be using domain names by the time she's a teenager. Time will tell.
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Michael Hainsworth 2-27-2006 @ 5:53PM
Please keep in mind that anyone can look up the mailing address (and phone number!) of the owner of a domain name through a "WhoIs" search. While domain registrars like Godaddy.com can keep this anonymous, most don't.
You can use WWW.WHOIS.NET to find out if your info is publically available and, if necessary, change it to your work address or -- depending on the registrar -- make it anonymous.
All the best,
Michael
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Laura Snow 3-01-2006 @ 10:49AM
I think you should go ahead and use it. I don't hide names online. I often go by Laura Snow because it's easier to remember but since I sell on ebay and online people know my real last name and some even know my address. I post photos, vids, and more of my son. I don't care. No matter how careful you are, if someone wants to do something to your family they will find a way. It only takes a small amount of research but you can use a PO box to register the domain with to protect at least that. I often give out my mother in law's address on packages in case they are returned. My son is there once a week and under total supervision so I felt that was safe to do. Our apartment building is highly secure and no one can enter without a key or being buzzed through.
I know it's a sad cruel world out there but you can't protect your children from everything and the irony of it is that some of the most protected kids are the most targeted. I'm with my son almost totally and I could take out just about anyone who dares to touch him uninvited!
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