You said, “Because you don’t use a pseudonym. Because you don’t obtain consent – in fact, you seem to get the opposite. Because you’re supposed to set an example: when someone you love and respect says stop, in any situation, for any reason, you do.” Again, you are directly commenting on my actions as a parent. How are these things not “an overarching judgment about you or your parenting style?”

“Without context, that’s what I, along with others, saw here.” This is something that both you and Andreas brought up. The thing is, you’ve both been part of the videoblogging email list for a while now and you are both avid bloggers/videobloggers and you know that the context in the case of someone’s personal videoblog is the whole work. In this case it’s hours of video. I know neither of you have seen anywhere near all of these videos but I’m sure, especially where Dylan is concerned, that you’ve seen enough to have some kind of context for this video. You can’t argue that it’s “without context.”

And the thing that was just over the top for me was this – “My dad is a slumlord. When I was a kid, we’d go to collect money and he’d have me sit in the car and lock the doors while we went to “talk to clients”. If they saw that there was a kid in the car, there was less chance they’d kill him. I’d never trade that for this.” In other words you never trade the experience of having your father use you as a human shield for the experience that I’d just subjected my daughters too. That, to me, is insulting. And you wonder why I wasn’t civil? That’s why I took your comment down and emailed you – I didn’t think it was something we had to discuss in public. It just seemed to me that you came by blog and unleashed a personal attack.

Andreas, you said, “I wrote my first questions with the intention of having a debate about online identity of minors and the role of parents. Brittany and Quirk did the same. You have not entered into that conversation. Do you not want to talk about these issues? If not, that’s fine, but at least come out and say that instead of responding with condescension and hypocrisy.”

In the past I’ve certainly made videos that I hoped would start a discussion. I can tell you without a doubt that this was not one of them. Like I always try to do when posting videos of my family, I look for moments that capture something we’d like to remember and, I hope, contain a little bit of truth that others will recognize in their own lives. I think I got a tiny, true piece of a father-daughter relationship here. That’s all I was trying to do. I didn’t make this to start a “debate about online identity of minors and the role of parents.” You guys were the ones who came over here and dumped that pile of shit in the middle of my blog (btw, that’s my metaphor for your actions). I didn’t invite this “debate” and I guess that’s why I reacted with condescension (like I’m doing now). So, my suggestion to you is that, if you’d like to have a debate, maybe you should blog about it on your own site. Or if you’re really committed to having a conversation (since you don’t allow comments on your blog) you should take it over to the videoblogging email list where there are influential people (many of whom are apparently scarring their children for life) who might care to debate you. As for this forum, it’s now closed.

My daughter calls me “the camera freak.”

My two kids aren’t yet to the age where they are “moooOOMMMM!!” but I’m sure it’s coming up soon. There have been several times that I have videoed something that my daughter said “please don’t put on your vlog,” and I have obliged.

That being said, I have met Michael and his daughters, and as others have said, he loves them very much, and that is evident when you see them together.

This moment, at least to me, is a moment of parental love, doting on a period of time in their lives that will soon have passed by. There is nothing alarming, degrading, or harassing in this video to me.

Now, if Michael had filmed her dancing, then she said afterwards “Dad PLEASE don’t put that on the internet,” I wouldn’t expect to see it here… and I’m sure I wouldn’t. But that’s just a hypothetical situation. And I would hope a situation like that (and I’m pretty sure it would, knowing Michael) would bring forth a short, high-level conversation with his kids about getting people’s permission before posting videos.

Even with adult friends of mine, I get permission before posting videos of them to their vlog.

Carry on, people. There’s much more serious conflicts in the media community right now to argue about.

- Susan

I do have a lot to say about your detractors, but I think Rebecca and Joe said most of it and in a lot better language than I would have used.

Michael and Joe were raised by single parents. I know I made a lot of mistakes raising them, but they seemed to have learned from them. They are both much better parents than I and I am very proud of them.

To those of who thought this video was inappropriate, intrusive, scary, etc., lighten up. No way in the world would I have thought any of those things and I was shocked when I read them.

People watch videos through their own filter and the world is full of opinions. I can understand why Michael was a bit upset based on the comments, heck I felt like they were uncalled for and it’s not even my video. But some seemed harsh, but as I have learned all to well you can’t please everyone….so Michael, keep on vlogging…..

I have civil conversations with other parents who post video of their children online (including some who have removed it from the Internet over time) because I myself have experienced a tremendous amount of unwarranted harassment on- and offline and find that type of behavior unacceptable. I apologize that you felt that way. With other folks, I have pleasant conversations because we’ve built relationships. You and I have never tried to do that – a fault of ours collectively, if you’d call it that – so here we are. I misunderstood your video, you misunderstood my entire comment and its intention, and instead of deescalating an unfortunate situation, you did the opposite, publicly and privately.

I suspect we will never have this conversation in person the way we will here, and that is too bad. I nevertheless hope you continue to want to talk about the larger issues at hand because they are important and real.