Blogger Lacey Spears Charged with Murder of Son Garnett, Munchausen and Internet Don't Mix

Mom Lacey Spears blogged about her son Garnett's Journey 

through illness and her woes online. With social media a daily-constant it's become popular to keep a running online, especially on medical conditions. Then horror of horrors, turns out Spears is another Casey Anthony. Only worse. Spears was making Garnett sick for media attention. Spears was charged with murder, by administering lethal sodium injections. 

They call it Munchausen's by Proxy. Sounds so much better than sicko child murderer. And I have to say, I wasn't all that surprised. I have to wonder about people who constantly post private stuff about their families. Don't me wrong. I've followed the illnesses of several people this way. I'm NOT faulting sharing updates, information or just venting. 

I'm talking here about an insatiable need for attention that's pathological. And the internet gives Munchausens and exhibitionists their steady supply of attention crack. It's positively intravenous. And being virtual, it's incredibly vulnerable to abuse. Trolling, stalking, trumped up drama, self-aggrandized, lying, sexting, suggestive pictures, user-created porn, scams, pity parties, and downright vile, vitriolic and bizarre.

Parents, for everyone's sake--curb you Facebook (blog, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter) use now. No one says when kids are gone that they wished they'd played online more. Read more

There's Solidarity with Mom Who Choked Facebook Bully

When first reading about Debbie Piscitella, the Florida mother who ABC News Blogs says choked a Facebook bully in her 14-year-old daughter's defense, I was inclined to pontificate. According to the article, the kid wrote on Facebook that Piscitella's daughter was a "fat (deleted) whale and didn't deserve to live because she is so nasty that he wouldn't even rape her." That makes the mother bear in me want to disassemble the kid like a jigsaw puzzle and leave few pieces out. Read more at There's Solidarity with Mom Who Choked Facebook Bully

Facebook is Right to Nix Teen Photo Competitions

Concerned parents have succeeded in getting a "Most Beautiful Teen in the World" Facebook page pulled. Kids were uploading photos of themselves, sometimes scantily clad in sexualized poses, for the approval or disapproval of the Internet masses, ABC News reports.

Now there's a recipe for disaster: Nubile youths throwing their images into cyberspace to be critiqued by who knows who. I'm bothered by kids splashing images of themselves about to start with. Mix in some shirtless or bikini-clad photos and that just escalates my concerns. Those photos of bare-chested boys with thin arms and concave chests are pitiful. It gets worse; there are "most ugly teen" contests too. Read more at Facebook is Right to Nix Teen Photo Competitions 

Parents Post Breastfeeding Photos Online, Deemed Obscene - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

This is a two-part series on the breastfeeding moms vs. Facebook fracas. Moms from around the world gathered at Facebook offices and in large cities to protest by doing what they do, aka nursing babies. Why the protest? Facebook won't let them share photos of themselves breastfeeding their children (but it will allow people to spray the f-bomb all over the place, to post highly sexualized images of themselves and to tell the world every time they use the bathroom).

I wrote these pieces from a straight news (no opinion) basis, but I feel very strongly that breastfeeding in public is healthy, positive and very much NOT obscene. Breastfed is best-fed for baby. It's good for other moms to see others in solidarity. And anyone who gets their knickers in a twist over the sight of a lovely mommy using her God-given breasts (for the purpose God intended) to feed her lovely baby, needs to get therapy. Don't want to see it? Go sit under a blanket. That and never leave the house, turn on the television or go online. So rock on breastfeeding mamas. I miss those days so much. Okay here endeth the rant (temporarily, anyway. This really incenses me) and here is the nurse-in article. Moms Protest Facebook for Banned Breastfeeding Photos. And this is one about the Leaky B@@b and Express Yourself Mums that got the ball rolling. Read more at Parents Post Breastfeeding Photos Online, Deemed Obscene. 

Parents Use Facebook to Monitor Kids: Spying or Safeguarding?

Parents Use Facebook to Monitor Kids: Spying or Safeguarding? A recent Laptop magazine poll showed 55 percent of parents admitted to monitoring their children on social network sites like Facebook. The term 'spying' was used; are parents overprotective and nosy or are they safeguarding their kids? Poll results said 41 percent of parents check their children's status updates, 39 percent check their children's wall posts and 15 percent have sent friend requests (4 percent were rejected). Another 13 percent say that they have used friends' accounts to check up on their children. Read more...