Kids blogging embarrass parents

When a kid is 10 years old, it's his parents who are embarrassing. But in the days of public blogging, it's the parents who are often embarrassed by what kids post in their blogs, reports The Washington Post.

The age of the Internet diary is upon us, and kids are using it to complain about work, school and parents. And for parents in high- profile positions, blogs can stir up controversy.

Remember the picture of Tennessee Republican Senate candidate Bob Corker's daughter's locking lips with another woman and dancing in what appeared to be her underwear? It was posted on her Facebook page and made famous courtesy of Wonkette.com. And that was just the beginning (surely not the end!) of assorted Congresspeoples' children posing in ridicules photos and posting them on their blogs for all the world to see.

Jared Watts is a 21-year-old who works at Cingular Wireless. His father just happens to be Wayne Watts, senior vice president and associate general counsel of AT&T Corp., Cingular's parent company. The fact that his father got him his job, has not stopped him from publicly disagreeing with Dad on everything from company policies to mergers (the elder Watts is defending AT&T's customer service record before regulators as the company tries to acquire BellSouth Corp). Jared Watts does manage to avoid posting personal criticism of his dad, who says he supports him "100 percent."

"I care very much for my son. And like many fathers and sons, we have differences of opinion on many subjects," said Wayne Watts through an AT&T spokesman.

More than half of the blogs on the Internet are written by people under 30, according to a July study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. "Many of them don't think they are committing public acts by posting a blog, but the power of search is that it makes it pretty darn easy to find," said Lee Rainey, founding director of Pew.