Since there are so many places where bios are listed like online sites, playbills, etc., I wanted to remind everyone the importance of not listing too much personal information within those bios. Especially for first time parents, who are so very proud of their child's accomplishments that they want to shout it from the roof tops, it is important to remember to protect your child's safety and privacy by not listing TMI (too much information), where it can be copied and/or misused.

It is unfortunate, but due to the internet and personal information becoming more public, there is a rise in pedophile and child abduction networks, yes, there are now known networks, which are threatening children and young adults everyday. To help keep our families safe, it is best not to list any personal information e.g., family names, the city you live in, or names of schools and the cities they are located in, within the bio. If you want to thank a family member in your bio, just list it as thanks to my Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother, etc. Listing a teacher, agent or manager by name, is usually a safer option, since they are not directly related. For further information and awareness, go to www.bizparentz.org and look under Child Safety.

Remember this on resumes, also, which can easily end up in public trash cans. Do not list the school name for any theatre productions. E.g., list Greenfield Elementary School as Greenfield Theatre, NY (or whatever state).

Let's stay safe out there!

great advice, MIB! We modified our resumes shortly after joining this board and reading such great suggestions.

Thanks, Fluff!

I see so many school and community theatre playbills, as well as hometown newspaper articles with TMI, that I hope more and more parents will bring this info to the attention of all those involved.

This reminds me, I'm seeing more and more cute decals on cars with the figures of the family members, and now people are adding the family names under the figures. Yes, it's cute and I know they are proud, but I just don't think they realize how dangerous it is. So sad but true these days. I actually stopped a lady who was loading her groceries into her car (with decals and names) and pointed out the potential danger her decals had with her children's names listed. At first she looked surprised and while she thought about it, she thanked me and said she was going to take them off her car when she got home. Whether she did or not, who knows, but at least she listened and thought about it.

I'm considering making up flyers to have with me to put on cars in store and school parking lots when I see cars with TMI decals. I think every school should be passing this information on to their student's families.

In the same vein, parents should seriously consider a stage name LONG BEFORE their child needs it. When we started, the idea of a stage name actually seemed pretentious and silly. Now, not so much - and DD is not a 'star'.

It is amazing to me how comfortable adults are in touching a child who they feel that they have a connection to. Also, unless kids are prepared, they don't know how to answer the friendly direct questions that (perfectly lovely or possibly dangerous) adults ask as they meet face to face. "My friend is from Brewster, do you live close to there?" It's easy to supply TMI just by being polite.

With 'stage dooring' becoming an expected part of the theater experience - at all levels - parents need to be even more vigilant.

I have to admit, I have been guilty of TMI in my DD's community theater bios in the past. Was recently drafting her bio for a production of Annie, however, and was careful to keep these rules in mind. Thanks again for a helpful reminder.

Thank you Mominbiz for starting this topic and for directing readers to information on our site.

I wanted to post the specific link to one of our newer articles specific to theatre safety. We were fortunate to have a very dedicated and concerned parent request and contribute to this resource.

http://bizparentz.org/images/Safety_for_Child_Performers_in_Theatre.pdf

Paula

quote:

Originally posted by PaulaD:
Thank you Mominbiz for starting this topic and for directing readers to information on our site.

I wanted to post the specific link to one of our newer articles specific to theatre safety. We were fortunate to have a very dedicated and concerned parent request and contribute to this resource.

http://bizparentz.org/images/Safety_for_Child_Performers_in_Theatre.pdf

Paula

You bet Paula, and thank you once again for having your site to refer to. I send people there all the time, especially to this link on bios. I used the basic link earlier so others could see all the other great child safety links you have.

Here's another link on safety for cross reference. http://bbs.backstage.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9611031/m/165105021

Time for a bump!

These are such useful and important threads - I wish there was a way to "sticky" them on top!

Great post! Very informative! Thanks for bumping it up!

You can do all of the above things and it helps but perverts can still get through if they want. It's like a matter of risk management. Just make anything you do online hard to trace to you and even put in some wrong info to confuse the pervs if they decide to target you. Definitely make anything like Facebook or MySpace friends only and keep your blogs as anonymous as possible.

I had a man stalk me when I was 16 without even knowing it. He was just this man we would see around the coffee shop near our school that would always come out to see our performances. He seemed really nice and even made donations to the school so nobody thought anything about it when he started friending kids on MySpace and Facebook. He never made any overt advances or anything. Then he got caught with kid porn on his computer and some of it was ME!!! He had taken pics off my MySpace and photoshopped my face onto a bunch of porn pics!!! Can you imagine??? But what can you do? Go through life scared all the time?

Oh my God!
How scary!

The Bizparentz links were so informative! The idea of buying the web domain name of the child was a great one - how do you go about doing that?

Try godaddy.com. I use them for a number of sites.
While my kids 14 and 18 have myspace and facebook pages (which I monitor) I too have had the urge to build a website for my youngest. Only at this point it would seem a vanity site since he really hasn't been in anything major. At some point I will probably put it online when it becomes a marketing tool, but that can wait. Until then I too watch playbill bios and am carefull not to include too much.
These forums have helped a lot in understanding the whys and wherefores for being concerned.
Thanks a lot people.