The internet has been in a uproar over the last week with regards to Facebook’s latest changes to the privacy settings (read more about it here and here). When a company as large as Facebook makes such a dramatic change, it causes to a major ripple effect in the industry. We wanted to address this as it applies to Kidmondo.

One of the reasons we founded Kidmondo was that we really couldn’t find a compelling way to chronicle and share news about our kids with family and friends in a safe environment. The privacy of our child’s information is of the utmost importance to us. In fact, that is one of the reasons we do not offer a ‘public’ journal. All our journals are secure and password protected and a user must be invited by the parent to see their child’s journal.

This is a key feature of our service and one we do not intend to change going forward. We realize that when you sign up for a service –especially a service like ours– there is a leap of faith in terms of trust. We just wanted to reiterate that we take your privacy very seriously and that your child’s data is your own. We are only a temporary caretaker. Be safe.

While doing some early spring cleaning, I stumbled upon some press clippings that we never posted up. They don’t really talk about Kidmondo and are really about parenting in general.  Some are definitely quite useful.  In no particular order…

Simple ways to make your child feel special – Babycenter

Bedtime is a perfect time to make your child feel special. Daniel Hallac, cofounder of Kidmondo, says that he and his wife started a bedtime routine six years ago with their son called “relax.”

After teeth brushing and a story, it’s time for “the relax,” which “is really just hanging out in his bed with the lights out,” says Hallac. “We just talk about anything he wants to talk about. Like many parents, we are very busy and pulled in a million directions. But during ‘relax’ time, we focus 100 percent on him.”

When their son was younger and guests were over, he insisted the guests do “the relax,” too.

Beware the Know It Alls: How to Handle Unsolicited Baby Advice – WebMD

“With the first one, we got a ton of unsolicited advice about everything under the sun,” says Daniel Hallac, a New York City dad of two. Hallac is also co-founder of kidmondo.com, a website that lets parents journal, store first photos, and keep growth charts. “It really freaked us out trying to deal with all of it.”

“In the end,” Hallac tells WebMD, “we figured out two responses that seemed to fit our every need. The first was, ‘We will check with his doctor,’ because no one questions the doctor; and the second was ‘Great! Thanks!’ and then we just went ahead and ignored it.”

Working Dads Make Time for Family – Calgary Sun

Until a few months ago, Daniel Hallac was Global Head of eBusiness for HSBC Private Bank. He says “like many who work for large multinational corporations, my job was quite demanding: long hours, lack of flexibility, frequent travel, early and late conference calls, etc. I often had to miss school events and came home after the kids were already asleep.”

So he left HSBC and launched his own Internet start-up, Kidmondo.com. “Now I set my schedule around my kids,” says Daniel. “I can attend all their school functions, birthday parties and doctor visits.”

Finding the Email Program That’s Right for Your Family – MyFox Chicago

Daniel Hallac, owner of Kidmondo, an online baby journal website, says he set up his 5-year-old son on Apple Mail because of its parental approval features. “Apple’s mail program is really useful because you can put limits on the emails your child can send or receive,” Hallac says. “I haven’t found a web-based mail service that lets me do this. It makes me feel very safe that he can’t receive any errant spam.”

Momblogger Cybele Weisser wrote a article on On The Juggle, Wall Street Journal where she worried about the potential effects of all the public photos of her child that she and her husband posted on Flickr. I think this is a very valid concern, that many of the comments seem to agree with.

For us, the whole question of privacy was one of the main reasons why we founded Kidmondo. Our families live in different parts of the world and we were never really able to find a compelling way to securely share with them our kids stories/photos/etc. We also didn’t want to deal with sending people to different sites. We tried various solutions but in the end stuck with email…Care to guess what we use now?

[Hat tip: Daddytypes.com]

I read a recent article by Judith Graham from Chicago Tribune entitled A puzzle over fewer boys. She points out that while historically there are more boys being born than girls, the gap is closing and no one is really sure why. I quote:

In the U.S., the ratio of baby boys to girls has been declining since 1970, translating into 17 fewer males for every 10,000 births, or an estimated 135,000 fewer boys born between 1970 and 2002, according to a study last year in Environmental Health Perspectives.

With Kidmondo a little over 1 month old, I thought I would be interesting to compare these results with the children on Kidmondo, the vast of which were born after 2000 (we do have a few exceptions). The results of which may surprise you.

As you can see from the chart below the boys still seem to have a significant statistical lead:

What does this mean? We are not sure, but it sure is interesting.