What's my baby's klout score?

Hello. My name is Elizabeth and I'm an addict. I'm addicted to Facebook. Anyone who knows me AT ALL knows this within an hour of meeting me and anyone who chooses to be my Facebook friend quickly discovers that I have to get a Facebook fix frequently.

Here is a lovely photo of me in my natural habitat: checking in on Facebook.

I'm guilty of posting pictures of my food, writing statuses specially formulated to start cat fights between my strongly opinionated friends from all over the world, and, yes, even posting selfies. Whatever. Don't you judge me.

Even my dogs have their own Facebooks. Yes, plural. They each have their own Facebook. They aren't very active or anything but I do tag them in pictures and, sometimes, check them in or post a funny status update.

So, of course, I think it is a given that someday I will make a Facebook for my fetus so that I can post pictures and baby stories to my heart's delight for my friends and family who are interested to enjoy. I thought this would be a good alternative to just spamming ALL of my Facebook friends with every precious moment of Baby Maze's precious existence. I plan to set it private so that only those invited can see it. It will be a cute way to keep a record of Baby Maze from conception on. I imagine that kids will have some other social media site they prefer by the time Baby Maze is old enough to be allowed to have their own actual social media profile.

So, I've heard a lot of arguments against this AND against posting anything about your kids online. I have friends who are very restrictive about pictures of their children going around. They tell me they are afraid that predators will see their kids and use the photos for horrid purposes or, worse, actually come after the children. That seems a bit paranoid to me, but I totally respect their right to keep their children's photos private and under restricted access with no sharing OR to not have any photos of them online at all.

There are also some who argue that posting photos and stories about your kids is invasion of their privacy. In We post nothing about our daughter online,Amy Webb expresses concerns about face recognition software and data mining being used against her daughter someday. She says she posts absolutely nothing at all about her daughter on the internet.

Well, I don't want to expose my kids to online pedophiles or ruin their chances of getting into college because of embarrassing baby photos BUT... I just can't imagine NOT posting about my baby online. It seems like almost EVERYONE does it. Why would a predator choose my random baby out of the millions upon millions in Facebook feeds everyday? Also, don't you think in 20 years, when my kids is applying for college, there will be so many millions of embarrassing baby pictures floating around that they will just be completely uninteresting by then?

In Someone catfished my kids and they went viral, Carinn Jade found herself looking at a Facebook meme with HER children in it an some made up BS story. She was outraged and felt violated. Someone took her actual children and invented a story about them and millions of people believe it. There are a mix of comments in the comment threads, some supportive and some ugly, and she fears what her children will think if they ever read that.

I'm very curious to hear your take on this. Is it okay to post pictures of your kids online? Do you post their names? Where do you post? Do you take any precautions? Is it super paranoid to NOT post? Do you have any concerns about what all this online baby book bonanza will mean for children as they grow up?

Annotated Bibliography
Someone catfished my kids and they went viral. Carinn Jade.  by http://www.mommyish.com/2013/09/03/someone-catfished-my-kids-and-they-went-viral/. 3 Sept 2013

A woman allowed a website to post a picture of her kids. The picture, with a fake story attached to it, went viral. Now she is afraid that strangers will recognize and harass them.

We post nothing about our daughter online. Amy Webb.  http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/data_mine_1/2013/09/facebook_privacy_and_kids_don_t_post_photos_of_your_kids_online.html. 4 Sept 13

The author argues that with face recognition software on the rise, and big brother peering into everything, you should not post pictures of your children online. You should protect their right to privacy and allow them to control where their image is posted.

Posting pictures of my kids does not make me a bad parent. Andrew Leonard.    http://www.salon.com/2013/09/04/posting_pictures_of_my_kid_on_facebook_does_not_make_me_a_bad_parent/

In a response to We post nothing about our daughter online, this article emphasizes the importance of creating and building community as we share pictures and stories of our children.

Should Parents Post Pictures of their Kids on Facebook? http://healthland.time.com/2013/09/06/should-parents-post-pictures-of-their-kids-on-facebook/. Eliana Dockterman. 6 Sept 13.

This article discusses the frequency of parents' posting pictures and info of their children on Facebook, and argues that the lack of anonymity could create a whole generation of Miley Cyrus's going wild.