Mom blogs — Does posting photos online jeopardize your family?

For Veeda Bybee, a first-time mother and freelance writer, security was the reason she recently blocked public access to her family blog, the Veeda Weekly. It used to be accessible on most major search engines, but now only people she has invited to view the blog can see it.

Overall, Bybee said, she wasn't too worried about the information on her blog, which included pictures of her daughter, but wanted to be extra safe. She has a new site that is open to public searches and includes thoughts on toilet training, curly hair vs. straight hair, and links to various sewing projects.

There is no mention of Bybee's name on the site, and she has created a pseudonym for any posts about her daughter. She said her new site will be an outlet and help motivate her to write.

"A lot of moms are bloggers," she said. "I think it's a good use. It's another way to be creative, in a sense, and kind of share different things like advice."

Orem-based photographer Nicole Hill started blogging about a year ago and posts information about photography, design and decorating tips online. Her blog, nicolehill.blogspot.com, actually gets more hits in a day than her photography Web site, she said. And it's cheaper to operate.

"Professionally, it's to my advantage to keep it up," Hill said. "It's a creative outlet for me."

But she worries about the general safety of family blogs that are open to public searches. Hill says her site does not have a lot of personal information, and the only way a person could find her is to call a business number and sign up for a photography class she offers. Hill does not have children, and there are no pictures of her home on her blog.

"If you are going to have a personal blog of kids and and house, I would definitely do an invite-only blog," Hill said. "I think that can be dangerous, and I'm surprised how many have public blogs like that."

Jason Freidenfelds of Google's global communications and public affairs office said any person using Google's Blogger site can make her site password-protected and block her blog from being indexed by search engines. Likewise, Matt Mullenweg with WordPress.com said blog users on his site can also block access.

"All posts and all uploads — including pictures and video — to that blog will only be seen by people you specify. It's really private," Mullenweg said in an e-mail interview. "It's so easy to do. It's what I'd recommend for anyone who wants to keep things out of the public eye."

For Ferney, security isn't a worry. Although her site is primarily focused on design tips and trends, she just recently posted a picture of her son, Moses, from the day he turned 3 months old. Comments linked to the posting were from women who wrote about how cute Ferney's son was and also shared stories about their own children.

"It's more of an issue to get people to read blogs than to stop bad people from reading them," Ferney said. "A lot of people do those family blogs, and I could see how they could be more concerned, but I don't think there are that many people out to get people."

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E-mail: nwarburton@desnews.com