Sharenting

There is an article on the BBC website about the risks of talking about your kids here.  It says that with a little digging, children will find that the answers to their security questions will already be all over social media. 

And it's true.  Anyone who follows this blog will know bear's date of birth.  They would find it fairly easy to find their first school, if they did a little digging, and anyone can have a good guess at their favourite football club.  It is probably easy to find the name of their first pet, and there are all sorts of bits and pieces about bear that you can pick up.  It might be harder to pick up my maiden name, as I don't think I have it anywhere on the net, but it may have slipped through.  I don't answer any of those 'your mother's maiden name plus your first pet is your secret name' thingies on Facebook which are phishing expeditions and should be ignored, but you never know. 

It has given me a reminder that I need to write about bear and his pals with respect.  There are some things a lad shouldn't have on the internet and I've tried to be careful.  It means I've had to keep some hilarious stories to myself, but that doesn't matter.  There are some things a boy should never see about himself on the internet.  As he gets older, I'll be dialling back the stories. 

I only saw this article today, but a few months ago we were discussing passwords with bear and I advised him to lie shamelessly on his security questions.  His first pet was not Timmy the Dog (for example) and I encouraged him to be as creative as he could when it came to my maiden name.  I keep a note of passwords I rarely use, but in an obscure way and just enough to jog my memory.  For example, if I had a password 'Goldilocks' then I would make a note that the hint was 'bear bear bear'.  None of my passwords are 'Goldilocks', to be clear, but you get the idea. 

Today, bear is doing fine.  There is still some lingering traces of the stress, but he's much better.  And he got 96% in the optional Science test he sat on Friday, so he's got that as a boost.