Boatcop
10-31-2005, 07:44 PM
Hot Boat Forums, like most on the internet, are public. Needing little more than a computer, internet access and maybe an email account in order to join. Then again, some can lurk and not even sign up.
As is demonstrated in another serious thread here, you have no idea who your "speaking" (typing) to, or who may be "listening" (reading).
And please leave that other subject where it is. That isn't the purpose of this thread.
There are some we've communicated with for several years that none of us have ever met. Then again there have been close personal friendships made here, and even some romantic relationships develop. But do we really know the other thousands of people who have a user name here?
I make these comments for one reason and one reason only. Our kids.
In purely innocent posts, we (collective "we") post pictures of our kids. On the Boat. In Halloween costumes. At kindergarten graduation. With the Dog Spike. Or just for no reason at all except that we got a cute picture of them. We post their names. Their ages. And in some cases their schools, through showing them in soccer or other sport uniforms.
Are you catching on yet? No? Well read on.
In various seemingly unrelated threads we show pictures of our houses, from being in the background of our pictures of our boats and/or trucks. We tell where we live, sometimes down to the neighborhood, if not the street. We sometimes put our phone numbers down for people to call to buy what we're selling or for someone to sell what we want to buy. We say when we're going out to dinner or a club. Going to the River for the weekend. Where we stay at the River. And a whole bunch of personal information that is available to anyone who has those things I mention in the first paragraph.
Predators who want to do harm to our children only have to read this forum for a few days to find out anything and everything about us and our kids. They glean one piece of info here, and another piece of info there, and pretty soon know more about you and your kids than you'd like them to know.
Unknowingly, a lot of us are letting the bad guys know everything about us and our kids, making it very easy for them to swoop in and victimize them. We can tell the little ones about strangers and boogie men and everything else, but a person who has as much info as can be gained here would have a very easy time convincing a young child that they actually are friends of the parents and not strangers. Children can be trusting that way.
All of our kids are cute. We're proud parents and like to brag about them and their accomplishments. But please be careful in what you put out for the whole world to see. You never know whats on the other side of that computer screen.
OK, Public Service message over. I now direct you back to your regularly scheduled crisis du jour.
As is demonstrated in another serious thread here, you have no idea who your "speaking" (typing) to, or who may be "listening" (reading).
And please leave that other subject where it is. That isn't the purpose of this thread.
There are some we've communicated with for several years that none of us have ever met. Then again there have been close personal friendships made here, and even some romantic relationships develop. But do we really know the other thousands of people who have a user name here?
I make these comments for one reason and one reason only. Our kids.
In purely innocent posts, we (collective "we") post pictures of our kids. On the Boat. In Halloween costumes. At kindergarten graduation. With the Dog Spike. Or just for no reason at all except that we got a cute picture of them. We post their names. Their ages. And in some cases their schools, through showing them in soccer or other sport uniforms.
Are you catching on yet? No? Well read on.
In various seemingly unrelated threads we show pictures of our houses, from being in the background of our pictures of our boats and/or trucks. We tell where we live, sometimes down to the neighborhood, if not the street. We sometimes put our phone numbers down for people to call to buy what we're selling or for someone to sell what we want to buy. We say when we're going out to dinner or a club. Going to the River for the weekend. Where we stay at the River. And a whole bunch of personal information that is available to anyone who has those things I mention in the first paragraph.
Predators who want to do harm to our children only have to read this forum for a few days to find out anything and everything about us and our kids. They glean one piece of info here, and another piece of info there, and pretty soon know more about you and your kids than you'd like them to know.
Unknowingly, a lot of us are letting the bad guys know everything about us and our kids, making it very easy for them to swoop in and victimize them. We can tell the little ones about strangers and boogie men and everything else, but a person who has as much info as can be gained here would have a very easy time convincing a young child that they actually are friends of the parents and not strangers. Children can be trusting that way.
All of our kids are cute. We're proud parents and like to brag about them and their accomplishments. But please be careful in what you put out for the whole world to see. You never know whats on the other side of that computer screen.
OK, Public Service message over. I now direct you back to your regularly scheduled crisis du jour.