Parenting Question and Answers - Minti - I need some reasurance, please. - Minti

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anonymous | July 2007

Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

I don't have a parenting question, but rather a website question, but wasn't sure who to send it to, so I thought I'd ask it here (I hope it's ok). Before logging in, I had a better look at the Minti homepage and realised that anyone can clink on a members name and view their homepage even if they themselves aren't a member. I was just wondering if this was a good idea as members often place personal photo's on their homepages. I know that we are all responsible ourselves for what we place on our pages, and we assume (and hope) that all members are genuine, but wouldn't it be better if member homepages could be viewed only upon logging in, just to provide at least a slight deterent to perverts of various kinds? I know that this would not stop those that were determined, but would it help limit it, rather than allowing anyone who happens upon the site to view things meant for genuine members only? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for allowing advice and things of that nature to be viewed, but homepages tend to be a little more personal as we are putting ourselves out there in the hope of making friends with other parents like us, as well as to share our joy and happy moments with such friends. I just hate the idea of pictures of my daughter, which I want to share with my friends and fellow parents, being able to be viewed by those with less than healthy intentions. Please forgive me if I'm stirring up a bit of trouble here, but I could not rest until I at least asked the question.

Thankyou for your understanding and patience.

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	5.00 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| Kellzacar

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

Hi guys,

I got a response from Clay and its pretty much the same as written here . . . My thoughts are this:

A lot of website now give you a choice when you write each blog as to whether or not you want it public or private and the same is asked about you homepage . . . I am wondering if Minti could perhaps look into doing this as well. . . .

cheers Kellz

Reply

	5.00 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| natelz1

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

Omg i thought surely not, so i typed in each of our names into google and well, what do you know!! Doesnt make me feel to good!

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	3.38 (Average) \| July 2007 \| ClayCook

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

Hi Anon,

Thanks for posting this question.

Minti is a public site and I urge all members to treat it as such.

However: Members lounges are private (only visible to Minti friends), and private groups are private (only visible to members of the group).

Only make public information and photos that you are comfortable being public.

Kindest Regards
Clay

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	4.09 (Good) \| July 2007 \| angieh

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

You can put as much or as little as you want in your home page.

In addition, as I have mentioned to people previously - if you are concerned about your child's name popping up on the internet, perhaps you could use an alias. For example, you could use "Angel 1", "Mister", "Little Man", "My Girl", etc.

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	4.42 (Good) \| July 2007 \| Kristen

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

This is the big concern with using the Internet, isn't it? Everyone can see whatever you put out there. It's a scary concept and it was so great for you to remind us all of the choices we have to make when we post things on the internet. With those safety concerns in mind, the joy of Minti is being able to post pictures (if you would like) so that your online friends can see them. That's a choice you get to make. We all need to remember that whatever information you put out there is available for the entire world to see.

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	5.00 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| luckyone

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

Hi there , This is one of the reason i don't put photos of the kids and myself on the computer . as you never know who trying to hack or viewing your home page . I hope that clay looking into this since its brought to his attend

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	4.22 (Good) \| July 2007 \| monyq83

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

I agree with you all. Privacy is naturally a big concern, but really, I dont think Minti is to blame. If a pervert really wants to see your pics they will hack your computer, not just look at the stuff that is posted on Minti.

I think in a situation such as this, discretion is the key. If you have pictures that you dont want anyone to see, (eg kids in the bath or something) dont post them on here, and dont keep them computer. Save them to a CD and get them off the computer completely. Nothing is safe anymore guys, and it totally disgusts me. But as far as Minti goes, if you dont want people to see them, save your pics to Private. This limits them to only people on your friends list being able to see them.

Hope this helps.

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	4.71 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| MummaBear

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

That's true, all the photos of hannah in the bath or when she was toilet training and i had photos of her on the toilet, they haven't even been on the computer long enough to be put on disk, just printed off but they weren't digital anyway they were film. I guess bath photos, it depends on the photo. In a bubbly bath all you see is their face anyway.

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	5.00 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| llmunchkin

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

I agree - I don't post any pictures of Jaydee in the nudey unless they don't show his 'personal area' - don't worry, he knows the anatomical names for his kit. I tell them that these are personal, and he should be proud of them, however he shouldn't let anybody else look at them or touch them. I'm not sure if he get's it, however I say it over and over - it will eventually sink in (at 18mths old, his comprehension sometimes amazes me).

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	5.00 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| Brian49

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

That not all my wife got on the Google sit to try and find out the meaning of my daughters name, she typed my daughters name then clicked on search her name came up and my wife clicked on it. To my wifes surprise my minti page came up with my families names and ages in full view to evertbody in the world to see. I don't think much is protected on the wide world of the web.

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	4.85 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| llmunchkin

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

I was always aware of it, and I guess we can only do so much to protect ourselves and our children as far as people viewing our images for inappropriate reasons. How do you know that there is nobody hiding in the bushes at the park taking pictures of you or your kids? Is that person taking happy snaps or scenic photos at the beach as innocuous as they seem?

There are freaks and weirdos everywhere - better online, than in person - the best we can do is be aware, and be prepared with a strategy to deal with it. I choose to live my life freely, and express myself freely, even though there are predators and paedofiles out there, I won't let them hinder the enjoyment I get out of life, and sharing pictures of ourselves. My pictures can be found online under my real name and nickname anyway - however, I don't think they are that exciting - there are enough porn star pictures

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	4.85 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| llmunchkin

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

that are freely available, and a zillion stock photos of kids that people can access if they are so inclined.

(Sorry for the muck ups on a few of my postings - Micro Man removed a couple of computer keys and I keep pressing enter by mistake!).

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	5.00 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| llmunchkin

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please: Check your Bebo for this potential predator...

PS - Today a girl from the UK emailed me on Bebo to warn me about a guy that she thinks is a predator. He put in a friend's request to me, and I added yes - meaning to check his details later, as he had a private site - you couldn't see it until you were on the friend's list. I suppose it would be a good option for some members to have - or at least the option to only be able to view photo albums if marked public or something.

She told me to check his home page - it only had pictures of young mums and babies etc in his friend's list. Needless to say, I thanked her, blocked him, removed him, and reported him on the spot. You other Bebo girl's better check too - his name was Lloyd or something - no profile photo.

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	5.00 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| merlin0903

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

wow thank you for putting this question out there for us all to have a think about, i would have to agree with you all on this a 100% i have noticed this aswell when i have been looking around and without logging in the only thing that you don't see is the lounges of the persons homepage but everything else is there for anyone to view photos the lot,

the last thing that anyone needs is the stress of should i put that photo there or not, should any of us be thinking this when we are thinking of sharing photos with minti members of our loved ones?

is there any way that admin or the tech people can change it so that when it comes to homepages that the olny people that see them is the members that are loged in at the time?

thank you for putting this question out there

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	5.00 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| janicepovey

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

I also have a concern! I have found my blog on goggle, plus a few other minti members. My concern is if anyone can get into my blog what else can they get into from there??????? I only found mine by accident, i typed in "Guillans Barre" and it came up with "Janice Povey" blog and from there all my blogs. Abit scary! And on researching other sites, i came upon other minti memvers names. This was not the advice that i had written about GBS it was my blog.

Regards Janice

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	5.00 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| lunaeclips5

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

HERE, HERE, profile should be set to friends only..Private....i agree

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	July 2007 \| lunaeclips5

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

And taken off google and ever other search engine..You should only be able to view profiles if you are a memeber of minti and if you log in and enter via http://www.minti.com.au only Its scaring me..I also had the same thing when i was looking for a friend of mines page..It showed when she got married where she got married everything..

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	5.00 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| yummymummyof3

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

I would have to agree with you, I have just recently deleted all my photos of my kids for the reason of protecting their identity from someone we know.... however as much as I think this is a good idea, all we have to do is take our kids to the beach, local pool, park, shops and there are predators/perverts all around and with technology these days probably taking pics of our kids which to me is horrifying..... All i know i can do is be beside my kids to protect them as much as possible..... But I do think that homepages and photo section should be password protected, but who says every person that joins is a genuine parent and not one of those perverts.....

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	5.00 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| bittenbythelovebug

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

Yuk...i'm kreeped out just thinking about it! I have had the same thoughts myself re..perverts etc and have tried not to give out too much info. I didn't realise that just anyone could access my home page, and yes it is disturbing. I googled my daughters name as it is quite unique and wanted to see if there were any others out there with the same name and guess what came up? Yep, a pic of her on my home page. So I have changed all the names on my photos to try and keep my little family protected. Hopefully clay will protect our privacy. T x

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	5.00 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| Kellzacar

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

Hi there,

I have been thinking a lot lately about privacy and personal safety on Minti and have emailed Clay on this . . Now we just have to wait and see what he thinks . . I am sure Clay wants to protect us as much as we want to feel safe.

Thank you for bringing this out in the open forum for all member to comment on . . . .

cheers Kellz

Reply

	5.00 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| cazza

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

I agree with what annom is saying, and just want to thank kellz for emailing Clay about this, as thats the best idea. as he is very quick to trying to fix things..

im sure we will get a response from one of either Clay himself or one of the admin guys about this ... As im sure that there are a few on here that feel the same as you,...

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	5.00 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| mummy2girls

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

i agree with what you are saying...

this is the main reason why i have no photos posted on my home page, but this is my personal choice and it is one that we must all consider.

it is unfortunate that we must think in this way, but this is the way of the world!

we don't have to post photos we all make our decision individually, and i don't criticise any one for posting photos on the site.

thank you for reminding us of the issues of the internet! it's something to think about....

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	5.00 (Excellent) \| July 2007 \| lunaeclips5

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

??? how did you get red writting lol

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	July 2007 \| monyq83

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

The red writing happens when you report a comment. I think hers was reported due to a multiple submission... Ive done the same myself before lol. Can new members see the red writing? Or is it only Level 5 +?

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	July 2007 \| lunaeclips5

Re: Minti - I need some reasurance, please.

not sure?

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