We are family...

[mcroft]

So, my 13 year old niece has friended me on Facebook. That's pretty cool. And sorta scary.

I haven't censored myself online and, having thought about it I don't intend to. If she's old enough to be on Facebook, she's old enough to find my stuff. I've been pretty tame on Facebook, anyway. She hasn't found LiveJournal (that I know of), thus the post here. OTOH, Google exists. OTOOH, I'd be willing to explain anything she found, so there you go. Hope I never linked to any of the nasty shock sites.

So, yaye, she's starting to be her own person. Very cool.

Here's my question for the collective wisdom of LJ: How would you or have you dealt with the next generation of your family getting on-line?

Comments

[arenson9.livejournal.com]

If I'm willing to let the world see it, I'm willing to let them see it.

[mtfierce.livejournal.com]

I put the lower-explicit label on my journal so that if I get carried away talking about the strange attractiveness of zombie harlot space kittens I can point out, "You clicked the link, little sis."

Seriously, though, I tell my grandma the truth when she asks, and if she doesn't ask, I won't get in her face about it... but she's asking if she's reading. I have some filters, after all.

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

I refuse to use the explict-labels, because they screw with my RSS reader. I end up not reading those posts at all.

[mtfierce.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Good point. I'll have to consider that. But I'm sanitized for someone's protection, anyway. That's me, taking one for the team.

[ahem]

You've talked me into it. (OK, there was a lot of internalized dialogue that just went on that didn't make the screen.) I've never lied to my sisters, never pretended to lose games to them, and I've never hid the truth when they've asked for something, so I'm certainly not protecting *them.* By the time my children read these things, they'll be used to me. So I'll take off the label since it was only on for my own twisted amusement anyway.

[lintra.livejournal.com]

I have no intention of being friends with Fi when she gets on LJ because I think it will make me nutters. I don't need to see her drunken college party photos, god help me.

But if she asks, I will ask her what she intends on posting. It isn't that I don't want her seeing my stuff.

[kcarp.livejournal.com]

I work with children and youth and our churches have a variety of policies. Policies, policies, policies. About the only universal rule I've seen is "The youth should initiate the friending".

I choose not to friend (or accept friendvitations from) folks under 18. It isn't so much what *I* post but what others might post back--I don't want to be constantly policing when one of my less-than-clueful friends decides to comment on the relative drunkeness of people in my profession or whatever.

If my younger cousins friend me post-18, uh...ok. But yeah, drunken college party photos.

Thankfully, I've got a few years before I'll even let my kids consider joining up.

[gentlyepigrams]

I can't imagine wanting to friend anyone under 18 that I wasn't related to.

[kcarp.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Occupational hazard.

The basic issue is that youth don't check email, so a lot of the youth program people use Facebook to get the word out on upcoming events and whatnot. Not my idea of a good time. But at least it can be more transparent than a lot of other forms of communication.

(Why yes, I DID sit in a workshop on safety policies and technology this weekend.)

[gentlyepigrams]

I think this is why our friend John is on. He's a high school teacher.

[skywhisperer.livejournal.com]

My brothers (who are 13 and 14 years younger then me, so nearly a generation), have me friended on FB. I don't use it for much besides random status updates.

My LJ has been relatively public knowledge for a while, although I'm not sure any of them actually read much of it. What I do is anything I don't mind my mother/coworkers/whatever reading (like cooking posts), I leave public. Anything I wouldn't want them to see, I make friends-only, and the really interesting stuff gets locked to only certain friend groups.

That feature (and the fact that many of my friends have LJs, so they don't need a new set of credentials) is the only thing that's kept me from going to WordPress.

[hwrnmnbsol.livejournal.com]

The son will be deeply online within a matter of years.

I'm not really sure what will happen when he inevitably finds my Greedo/Han Solo slash fiction.

But I'm not going to hide it. I'll just have to explain it.

"Guess what, junior! Dad's weird." "Knew that, Dad." "Swell."

[nicoleallee.livejournal.com]

I have friended my younger cousins, so I do censor myself in some ways - I do not bring any family drama onto the internet, and I do not post things I do not want their mothers or brothers or sisters to know.

Otherwise, I figure they're old enough to read what's here.

[meteorplum.livejournal.com]

I don't have to worry about this issue until Tobias gets older, but have actually decided to not follow the Dalai Lama (his minions, rather) on Twitter because I'd be embarrassed about what they/he might read once they/he start following *me*.

Now, if His Holiness were on LJ.... :-)