Is my child at risk because of my blog?

There is so much heartbreak and tragedy going on in South Africa recently ( and the world too) but the hysteria over the recent ‘human trafficking’ and missing children that is being circulated is giving me sleepless nights.

Now I know that not everything shared is real and factual news reports need to be read as all the wrong things can go viral very quickly.

But that doesn’t take away from the fact that our children are at risk of predators.

By posting his pictures on my platforms of over 3000 + followers ( if you combined all my platforms) am I putting him at risk?

I share his name, our names, our area, I share his age, the things he likes to do or doesn’t like to do. I share his personality and I share where we like to hangout.

That is a lot of information that can be used against us.

Now I do try to take precaution in the following ways:

• I never share him in his school uniform or disclose the school that I send him to
• I no longer post naked pictures or bath pictures and any that I had up – I have deleted.
• I do not do ‘real time’ tagging. I don’t tag myself or my family at the park the exact moment we are at the park. If I want to tag a place or a new coffee shop – I always do it afterwards, either once we are home or the next day.

But are these things enough??

I follow Mommy blogger and TV personality Joanne Strauss and initially, I couldn’t understand why she never shows her children’s face on social media and now I get it.

So the thing that I am toying with is whether or not I continue blogging about my family and momlife or do i stop for the safety of my child.

I really don’t want to stop blogging though so do I continue but remove all pictures on him on my public account and take the approach of Joanne Strauss and keep his face out of things?

There is probably no right or wrong answer and each to their own but the world is just getting so dangerous and social media could be a hunting ground…

Stuck between a rock and a hard place – this is nothing to new to me but still I find myself with open-ended questions and what if’s.

I am proud of my son and I love to share his pictures! But I don’t want to feel like I am playing with fire because someone always get’s burnt.

i have worked so hard on this little space… and it’s starting to really feel like its taking off and becoming something. my heart would break to have to close it down but i would never be able to live with myself if the worst ever happened because of the things that I share on my platforms.

So really this is a blog post to try and process my thoughts because I asked my husband what he thought and he said “blog about it and see how you feel”. He may not win an award for #instahusband but he is always supportive of me.

I would love to hear opinions and views on the topic?

Can I blog successful and with the same authenticity if I keep my sons face hidden as I do now by sharing freely?

Am I being over paranoid?

Send words of encouragement and advise please????

 

xoxo

Disney Mom aka not-sure-what-the-heck-to-do

 

Photo credit : Unsplash