Demaestro - 3:58 pm on Sep 1, 2011 (gmt 0)

If your daughter or son were to use an alias instead of their real names your local bullies wouldn't know who they are.

That isn't realistic because the whole point of a social media account is to interact with those you know online.

Even if your child uses an alias he will tell his friends that alias name so they can add him. Bullies often come in the form of former friends or friends of friends, or can even bully the account name from others, an alias does very little to protect you from bullying.

Parents have to be responsible for their children's online activity there is no doubt about that. There is no magic bullet that will change that.

Anonymity is a big thing to people and I advocate anonymity on the web but if there are websites that want to transcend that and create a place on the web where anonymity isn't allowed then I see no problem with that. You still have a choice to not use those sites.

There was and always will be a need for anonymity (ask Deepthroat) but you don't have to remain anon everywhere you go on the web, but if that is how you choose to do things then don't make a Google+ account and move on with your life.

Use your real or fake name and abuses will still happen, people will be affected negatively or otherwise by their decisions to be online.

Google+ requesting this isn't a sign of anonymity on the web being dead. It isn't a sign that our privacy is gone. It isn't a sign of the CIA spying on you. It isn't a reason to dig a shelter in your yard and fill it with enough water and canned soup to allow you to live there for the next 50 years. It is just a service which, in the name of system integrity, requires a real name from it's users.