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> While certainly child predators are an issue

In what sense "child predators" are an issue? Because they leave disgusting comments?

> perhaps your daughter will grow up preferring to have a more private life

... or perhaps she will grow up preferring to get as much publicity as possible. But if her parents do not publish that video on YouTube - she would lose that opportunity.

In any case, this publishing decision is in hands of her parents, and clearly, parents made up their mind (and decided to publish that video).

As far as underwear goes, no I wouldn't care if I was under age 3 in the photo. Seeing a kid in a diaper is an everyday public thing. In that case, she was in a diaper rather than a bathing suit because she was still diaper age. I don't see it remotely as something to be embarrassed about.

I don't "need" to post publicly but I also have no reason not to. I'm not going to let people having creepy thoughts control my life, unless there is an actual, tangible danger of harm.

Honestly, if I was worried about creeps, I wouldn't let her wear a skirt in public. I see other girls at the playground all the time that make me wince a bit...I'm far more likely to dress my daughter in pants. But at the end of the day, I'm 1000 times more concerned about people in real life than on YouTube....because they are right there.

Have you considered that your child might really regret all this stuff you're publishing about them when they're older?

I don't exactly care myself but I do appreciate that my kid isn't capable of consenting to having his childhood published. So I don't do it.

It seems really odd that you're reason for making that call is, "meh, why not?"

What exactly is "all this stuff"? Photos of her playing?

I think about things she might actually be concerned about, but I see no reason she should be concerned about it, so no I'm not going to worry about it. If I was concerned, it might be about "should I put her in a dress or have her wear pants?" Because if she is wearing a skirt, someone could see her underwear, god forbid. YouTube or not.

At least on YouTube, it's pretty hard to follow someone home like can happen in the real world (e.g. Jayme Closs).

You know what I spend my efforts worrying about? Her getting hit by a car. Drowning. You know, real things.

> You know what I spend my efforts worrying about? Her getting hit by a car. Drowning. You know, real things.

Privacy is a real thing, and worrying about it isn't mutually exclusive with any other concerns. I'll be honest and say I'm somewhat disturbed by your whataboutism and nonchalant deflection of the fact you're pervasively invading your child's privacy and posting it online for all to see, consent be damned. Yes, you "see no reason" to be concerned, and that's your choice to make as a parent, but at the same time it's an extreme stance you've taken when, as other commentators have pointed out, the safest and most logical thing is to be more conservative with sharing such information.

There are no objective solutions to this kind of "problem". You think is disturbing, other think its not. Whatever solution you purpose, someone will be happy, other will be unhappy.

Well, kind of. One could argue that you can't un ring a bell. Your child can always publish all their childhood stuff if they decide to later on.

"Privacy is a real thing, and worrying about it isn't mutually exclusive with any other concerns"

Sure, but you need to balance things. Having someone on the internet see a video of her, fully dressed, and getting aroused by it, doesn't exactly compare to any number of real issues. As I said elsewhere, if I actually was concerned about her privacy so much, I'd go to a bit more effort to avoid having her wear a skirt or dress when she is playing. That seems like a good first thing to worry about.

Although not many people see the videos I post of her, she was thrilled when a nearby YouTuber (a 7 year old girl who actually has a significant number of subscribers) found her via this video and we'll hopefully get together for skateboarding together. So there are positives about putting them out there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuIEW9MCmcg

Meanwhile, I've dealt with my daughter's mother for years, as she freaks out over the most ridiculous tiny irrational fears, while nearly killing our daughter due to her recklessness in other ways.

You may think I have an extreme view, but you know who has to be concerned about being seen as having extreme views on things like this? People who are in contested custody situations, where their ex hires aggressive, unethical lawyers willing to grasp at any straw to tear down their parenting in a court of law. All the more so if that person represents themselves rather than having an attorney.

And that's actually me.

I assure you, if posting YouTube videos of my daughter playing at playground was something they thought they could use against me, they would have. But they didn't. And I won about the strongest decision you're going to find, and was awarded primary custody.

So yeah, I reject your premise that I have extreme views on this issue.

It's more like having considered it, I have no idea why they would care. A picture of me as a kid is essentially a picture of some other person who is five years old. When I see a picture of some five-year-old kid I don't think "Wow, they might feel terrible if they knew I could see this."

Maybe the sleepy baby girl from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTCQpjUrCe8&index=147&list=L... will grow up to be really shy and feel that wasn't her best angle. That strikes me as a personal hangup, not some constitutional right we should all be protecting her from.

It's funny how heated I can get about the notion "there are people whose reaction _isn't_ 'meh, why not?' What's wrong with them?" I'm like a militant meh-why-notter.

Militant meh-why-notter. Can I use that? :)

(thanks for your support, btw...)

> As far as underwear goes, no I wouldn't care if I was under age 3 in the photo.

Clarification, though: I was talking about you-the-adult, not some hypothetical video of you from when you were 3. Maybe you would be ok with that. That's fine. You're an adult and can decide for yourself what you want to post online about yourself. (I personally do not want videos of my 37-year-old self in my underwear on the internet, but that's just me.)

Anyway, as I initially said, I'm not even talking about creeps here. I, personally, as an adult, would not want photos/videos of me as a child floating around on the internet. It's not a matter of embarrassment or safety, it's just that I don't want my life to be public to that degree.

But hey, you can always argue that I'm an adult, and I didn't grow up with always-on internet connectivity (or, really, much in the way of internet connectivity at all until I was in high school), so maybe my opinion doesn't count, because culture and social expectations are different now.

But... they're not, really, at least not universally so. There are people who are children right now who are uncomfortable with this[0]. The linked article also mentions, for balance's sake, some kids who enjoy having a ton of information about them online. But that's the thing: you can always put more information about yourself online, but once it's there, it's very hard (sometimes impossible) to take it back. Parents who share things about their kids online rob them of the agency to decide for themselves how private they want to be. That's just fact, regardless of what you've decided.

[0] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/02/when-...

> Why do you need to post publicly rather than marking it as unlisted and sharing the link with people you know and trust?

Not always realistic. If you record some boyscouts event, you probably don't know the name of everyone there, let alone account information. People often email a link, and then people share it by forwarding it.

Alternatively, of course, you could upload it to some website for your organization, but again it'd generally need to be public, or you have the usual IT horror of getting everyone an account and dealing with people who say they can't log in. There is a reason people just toss it on YouTube.

unlisted links shared via email are still able to be opened by anyone with a link. They don't show up in recommendations and search results, but they're not private/whitelisted.

> Why do you need to post publicly rather than marking it as unlisted and sharing the link with people you know and trust?

Important point, still kind of weird to me, even in this day and age of Facebook and social media in general, where everyone feels the need to share every intimate detail of their lives with strangers.

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