I recently did something very, very naive, and I’m going to confess it right here.

For Christmas, I gave Joe a Web site–a blog really–on which it was my intention to write daily notes to him about what an awesome guy he is and how much I appreciate him. Then one day, I noticed Andrew at the site, reading through it. There was nothing inappropriate for him to read, but I sort of felt as though our privacy was violated. I recoiled and said to him, “Hey, you shouldn’t be reading that!” He looked at me with disbelief and replied, “But Mom, you posted it on the Internet.” Thus, my moment of “duh.”

I also made the horrifying discovery that if you googled Joe’s full name, this personal site would come up in the first few results. (If you’re thinking of googling it, forget it – I have since rectified the situation.) Little did I know that the googlebot would pick up the one time his name was used, on a site with daily traffic of two visitors (on a good day).

If he were job hunting (which he is not), this would not be the most professional site for a googling prospective employer to see. I wouldn’t even want a long lost friend to see it. It was supposed to be a quiet spot for the two of us.

I have learned my lesson. So, let me restate what I thought was obvious until I put my head in the clouds: What is online, no matter how random or minimal you think it is, is not private. I have a greater understanding of how naive teens and tweens might get into trouble in this area. And I’m all the more committed to educating kids about the reprecussions of an online life.