Photos of kids on the internet: what’s your position?
Co-incidentally I found myself having to answer this question twice this week. The first time was in a note from my son's school about having his photo taken for something to do with the MS Read-a-thon.
The second time was when I took Coco to a music/dance class at a local community hall and the teacher was asking all the mothers to sign a release form because she had a photographer there taking some shots for her music class website. Immediately, I felt uncomfortable. The words "photo" "children" and "website" have instant ALERT implications, don't they? Well, they do for me.
I finally got around to reading David Marr's fantastic book about the Bill Henson controversy recently and one of the most salient points he makes is that in past decade, with the proliferation of the internet into our lives, as a society we have become so suspicious about the photography of children. A cloud of suspicion and fear hangs over the whole IDEA of photographing children.
As I stood there with the other mothers (some of whom were happily signing while others wanted to check that no names would be used) my gut instinct was to say no. Then an argument broke out inside my head.
Me: "Come on, just sign. You're being ridiculous and paranoid."
Me: "You don't know what these shots can be used for. Don't do it."
Me: "But it's a MUSIC class. And her name isn't going to be anywhere attached to them."
Me: "It's not just about her name. It's her image. Once it's in cyber space, you have no way of knowing what it's going to be used for or who is going to see it."
Me: "But can shots of some kids playing with musical instruments and dancing around waving scarves possibly be used for unsavoury purposes?"
Me: "There are weirdos out there. You never know. Besides, even if it's not a weirdo, you don't know where the shots could end up. Coco could be used to advertise something in another country! You'll never even know!"
Me: "But if I don't know, does it matter?"
Me: "Of course it matters! As her mother, aren't you responsible for protecting her? Doesn't that also mean protecting her image from potential exploitation?"
Me: "I have a headache."
In the end, I somehow managed to stay for the class without signing anything. I'm sure the photographer was a lovely man but I was instinctively suspicious and wary and tried to block Coco whenever I could. The amusing part is that Remy, who was also with me, got hungry so I had to breast-feed him while I sat on the floor with the other mothers. So in actual fact my boob could end up on the Internet. Lucky Internet.
How do you feel about this issue? Is it just me? Have we become too paranoid or are we right to be suspicious and protective of our children and their images?
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Years ago I had a conversation with an ex. He has a young son and stated that he was never going to let him walk to school because ‘there are so many weirdos out there’. I found the idea of all these kids being overly coddled by their parents sad. The joys of discovering the world with your peers and alone are wonderful.
I have read that we actually live in the safest era of history but we have such a surplas of information that it insights fear. Once we would have lived in ignorant bliss if something nasty happened in the next villiage but now we are aware of what is happening on the other side of the world as it happens.
In saying that, whenever I take my ten year old sister out I look through slitted eyes at every potential preditor and hate myself for it.
I think that we over react too much on these issues. Lets face it if someone really wanted a photo of your child they could get it. I have two daughters and to be honest I have not even thought about the possiblity of someone taking their image and using it for something so vile.
Where do we stop? Do we stop having kids in the pumpkin patch catalogue because someone could scan it and use it inappropriately? Do we stop giving our film or photos on a disc to the local dry cleaners to print for us because we are frightened of them using the image somehow? Of course not. Maybe if we as mothers retain the innoncence of things such as a simple photo then maybe society would expect no less. It is the constant fear of a behaviour that lends it credibility. (the behaviour becomes one that is then shared by others – for example if you are a user of drugs and you are in a room full of people who are non drug users, then you are certainly not going to confess or partake in drugs in that moment are you? But if you are aware that others might be taking drugs then you feel less fearful to admit that you do as well and more likely to partake in that activity. My point is that yes there are devious, ill and disturbed people out there who will do these things, but lets not let our fear trick us all into believing (and then sharing that belief with others) that these types of behaviours are the norm rather than the behaviour of the isolated, disturbed and 0.0000001% of society. By recognition of the behaviour through our fear of it, we in fact normalise it.
When we had our first child in 2001 our son had his own website full of photos and videos and open to all. Some soul searching was done after discussions with family members. So we moved them into a restricted password protected area for famaily and friends who live around the world. We do the same with Facebook now with only friend/family accessing. Facebook users, be careful when you add a new album, it defaults to show everyone.
What’s my position of photos of kids on the net? Be selective of your photos and the websites, blogs you share them on.
Hi Mia,
Without being graphic, think “innocent” photos of your child’s photo being discussed in graphic sexual terms- in the worst possible language, “fantasy’ of exactly what they would like to do to your child, and what they would do if they could get their hands on a child.In the most awful way. I don’t want to scare people, but unfortuately the people who do this are people you TRUST. They are Parents, family memebers, police officers, teachers,etc. you only have to look at the papers to see that every day people are in prosecuted over this- and these are the ones they catch. Remember too that on your face book page or what ever you give away a lot of personal information… like where you live etc.
There was a case in Canberra recently where a guy was filming two little girls (under 4) playing in the nude in their own back yard, and then using it for his own purposes, and sending it on to other people. Horrific.
I really am not trying to scare people, but you are not paranoid.There is a real ‘threat” out there, but lets’ not forget statistically, it is more likely to happen in your own home, or another “safe” place.
Zelicat – Yes, with out going into too much detail, some real examples would help us to make a more informed decision about this. Thanks
Zelicat – thanks for your comment. Without asking you to be graphic, are you able to help us understand how our children’s seemingly innocent photos posted online can be mis-used?
Most of us have lingering concerns but I, for one, am not able to actually specify what might happen.
As someone who works in this area, how does it work, can you tell us?
Every now and then when I read something like this I get paranoid about my daughters website.
We have had a blog (which is mostly just pics) since she was born as all of my husband’s family are overseas. Most of them are elderly and pretty much the only thing they do on the web is email and look at her site. I believe that to password protect the site would mean they wouldn’t get to enjoy it and participate in her life as much as they do.
My husband and I also enjoy being able to share the site with our friends and family as well as look at it ourselves with our daughter. I’m not going to let paranoia or criminals stop me from enjoying it as much as we do.
The REAL Sydney… I work in an area of Law where we prosecute these matters.If you had seen what I have seen, you would not say this.
I have a 4 year old and I would never, ever post her image on the internet . I once made a Japanese tourist hand over his camera and delete the photo’s he had just taken of my blonde, blue eyed girl playing on a play gound. (he is just lucky my husband wasn’t there or it would have been a international incident!). Please, please be careful of the information and images you put out there. They are there forever, and there is no way to get it back or stop it.
I’m reading comments with much interest. I’ve seen a lot of facebook photos where people are tagged from years previously. Has the tagged person given their permission? I doubt it!
We all need to be wary(maybe call it paranoid especially) in relation to our children.
My daughter danced in eisteddfods many years ago and the man who videoed all the routines was charged and jailed for pedophilia!!!! Still makes me angry and feel creepy all these years later!
What amuses me on sites like Essential Baby is they plaster their kids on there then get offended when the pictures are used by someone else.
FGS you put them out there!
Quite funny really.
I think I may be incredibly naive, but can someone explain what may be ‘done’ with photos of kids on the internet?? I understand the danger with semi-nude pics etc.
This discussion is very interesting though as we are thinking of signing my 2 year old up with a modelling agency as she adores the attention of having her photo taken and think it would be great for her self-esteem, etc.
With all the photos of children ever taken for magazines etc, has there ever been a known case of their photos being used for purposes other than which they were meant?
Eve & Michelle – I’d forgotten about that photo. It’s old. But yes, as I said in my post, it’s a complex issue which I haven’t yet resolved for myself personally.
One of my favourite blogs in Dooce.com and she publishes the most exquisite photos of her beautiful daughter, whose face is now almost as familiar to me as my own children.
With the Celebrity Babies Blog picture (which they requested to run with an interview I did with them) I guess the difference for me with that is that I was WITH the children so the use of it is fairly limited although admittedly, not entirely in my control.
Perhaps this is an issue of control as much as one of fear and paranoia……
Still trying to figure it out. As it seems, are many many other parents.
How can you be so sure that noone has taken a photo of your children while your walking down the street, at the beach, playing at the park and not already posted on the internet or doing something with it, that they shouldn’t be?
As long as the photos are not nudie photos, I don’t have a problem.
scd – your comment is amusing to me.
i also think we are getting increasingly paranoid. it is up to the parents, however, and if your fears are such that you don’t want your children photographed, that is up to you, and it’s perfectly ok for you to be concerned for the welfare of your children.
i do think it’s sad that the world has come to this, though. that we let the fear of paedophiles etc rule our actions so much. it’s sad for the parents who would like to photograph their childrens’ first sports carnival, dance concert, whatever. i love that there are photos of me dressed up as the sugar plum fairy, dancing my six-year-old feet off.
it’s sad that innocence is not what it once was.
Go with your gut instinct. I don’t think your kids are missing out by not going on a website. I was asked to have my kids go on a tv programme about nits ! I said no because the TV channel then owns the film and can trot it out whenever they need it. That could be embarrasing for the kids in years to come. They are your kids and you don’t have to justify your actions !
“I refuse to let fear and risk management rule my life” – JLo
Finally someone speaking some sense.
Tara and others, that’s fine for you if that’s your choice. I’m not going to deride you as irresponsible, so I’d expect those of us who differ in opinion not to be derided in return.
And I am aware of a situation where a child being protected from an abusive parent in a new town etc was exposed through photography on the net.
I agree that there’s some overzealousness on this issue but I don’t think its leading me to raise paranoid children. They aren’t even aware of it as an issue. It’s not just children anyway. I read a blog whose author has had her photos and name taken off her blog and used for some not-so-nice purposes on the web and she has been unable to have it taken down thus far.
Its about control for me.
I have to agree that this is waaay OTT. The world has gone a little bit nuts me thinks. I think people are little too self absorbed and need to get over themselves.
I’m with TheRealSydney – this is paranoid. Admittedly I don’t have children, so some might say I have no right to comment, but I still feel entitled to an opinion on this and I think it’s silly to worry so much.
If the kids are fully clothed and playing with kiddy sized instruments to promote a music class for children what on earth is the problem with that?
When I was a kid I adored having my photo taken and would have been thrilled to have it taken for a music class.
Recently in the UK my uncle tried to take a proud father photo of his daughter having her first swimming lesson and they refused to let him do this. What the hell is the world coming to when parents can’t take photos of their own children anymore?
Just on a personal note (not having children of my own) I would be devastated if my cousins stopped putting photos of their kids on facebook. I see my cousins maybe once a year at a wedding or something, because they live in the country, and its the only way I get to see my adorable second cousins grow up.
And one of my cousins takes a lot of photos. No way she could email them to all of us.
Ooooh interesting input on this one! Good point Eve on the CBB, I thought the same thing as soon as I read this post Mia.
I fall into the category of trying not to live in fear and I regularly use pics of the kids in my eBay auctions (kids clothes – always very conservative!) but I also balance that with having a PO Box so no one knows where we live, and we’re not in the phone book (at one stage I wasn’t even on the electoral roll but I relaxed that as it was always a hassle come voting time!).
I have a family website too, as well as a heap of photos of the kids on my Facebook page – with the latter, it’s set to the highest security BUT who knows what my friends could potentially use the pics for? I’d hate to think though, that anyone I know would do anything untoward with them?
I was actually prodded though this week by a friend into having the family website password protected – just need to learn how to do that now! Just in case.
All this said, back in the mid-80s aged about 13-14 I won a Young Writers competition and had a photo published in the Newcastle Herald. We were living on the Mid-North Coast at the time and some sicko tracked me down and started making obscene phone calls, mentioning the photo. The world has always been full of evil and I’d hate my children to be exposed the same way, yet at the same time I’ve always signed those School and Kindy media wavers. And I took my kids on National TV, twice. So what does that say about me? I guess that I clearly need to give more thought to the whole thing LOL
Great food for thought though Mia and fellow posters, as always
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I think it is paranoia and I think that everyone getting together and patting each other on the back, congratualting them on their paranoia only serves to propel future paranoia.
What kind of world do we live in where people can’t share images of their kids on the net?
The internet is a HUGE place…with many more nooks and crannies than the real world. The chances of some sicko stumbling onto your blog and your child are incredibly slim.
Can anyone in this blog name ONE incident in their extended circle of friends where their children were threated because they posted photos on facebook?
And just think…these parents who don’t sign waivers saying their kids can be HARMLESSLY photographed are actually impeding on other parents taking photos.
My mum works in a primary school and at their junior athletics carnival she has to confiscate the camera from a mum and dad taking photos of their kid in an athletics carnival for the first time.
The reason…some parents in the junior school had expressly forbidden the photography of their children due to the same paranoia which meant that NO parents could take photos of their kids just in case their banned children were in the shot.
How ridiculous is that!
So just remember…those waivers you all fret over signing so the scary dance teacher can use some shots on the web could actually mean you can’t take your own photos of your precious children. I bet you would all get up in arms then!
Can’t we be alert but not alarmed? Can’t we trust ourselves as adults to protect our children so that the nasty man who cyber stalked them can’t actually get to them!
How about instead of raising a generation of terrified children we try to raise a sensible generation of children who aren’t afraid to do anything alone.
Tough call.
Depends on the parent, depends on the kid.
Local newspapers publish, in print and electronically, photos of kids doing everything from getting confirmed in their local church, to scoring the winning touchdown at the high school football game. Is that dangerous? Maybe or maybe not but probably not significantly more dangerous than getting in your car, driving through traffic and complaining to the newspaper editor about it.
I don’t think you’re paranoid; you’re the parent, it’s your child. I definately believe that to a “reasonable” extent (not even going to try and define that) parents should be provided the means to safeguard their children by restricting publication of their photographs.
I choose not to live in fear. I have pictures of my kids online, they’re for friends and family overseas.
Paranoid overprotective mothers.
Of course the whole world is out to get you and your wonderful child.
Sorry bout the typos.
What’s the difference between the MS Read-a-thon photo or a music/dance class pic than with you putting giving their picture to CBB?
I am wary about posting photos, I have a B&W pic of myself on my profile and front page of my blog and wonder if that is a risk, but then seeing so many others doing the same, I tend to think it is okay, as long as other details are not accompanying the picture or my profile such as birthdate, starsign, suburb, last name, family member’s names, etc. I definitely won’t be posting photos of my children, though. Has anyone heard that there are people stealing blog content, plagiarising what other bloggers have written and using it on their own blog sites. A post titled Bloggers Beware (May 2) on blogger lillyslife.com will provide you more details.
So funny to read this post. Yesterday I had to complete the enrollment forms for son’s day care and there was a section about allowing him to be filmed or photographed for marketing and advertising purposes and I didn’t know what to tick as instinctively I thought no and then had similar internal dialogue which then extended to conversation with my husband later that evening.
It’s sad but true but I think we’re right to be paranoid – how many times do you hear stories about “innocent” situations and “really nice guys” that turn out to be so much more sinister.
When I started my blog, It was just for me, I wasn’t really thinking about who was or could, read it. It was natural progression to put photos up and I was able to tell select family and friends about it. Well from there it spread like wildfire and now I hear about a great-aunt or a second cousin who regualarly stop by to read it. I have also started to attract people that have never met me, or have met me online. I do stop and question whether I should put these photos up, but I have decided to stick with it. I want to share my life, and I find it hard to do without visuals. It’s also a growing portrait of my family and I love having both words and pictures to document it. If I put a person on there other than immediate family I always ask for their (or their parents) permission – I totally respect people not wanting photos up there. I guess I have an optimistic nature. I would like to think that no one would use my photos in a way they were not intended for, it just makes me sick to think about it. That being said, if my son, or husband ever felt uncomfortable about it, I would take the photos don straight away. But until then, I live in hope that there is some aspect of the internet where people can share their life stories without feeling threatened by what might be lurking behind another screen. Naive? Maybe.
When I first started my blog, I posted pics occasionally of my son; then when my daughter was born I did the obligatory blog introduction and showoff and regular updates. Then over Christmas I had some really bad feelings and dreams and total freak outs and decided to remove them all and not even use their names – just initials. My reasoning was, people knew where I worked, I’ve been recognised from my blog and from the magazine before, so there was a slight “what if…” popping into my mind and I couldn’t shake it.
Then I spoke to a colleague – she’d just sold something to someone who googled her and found out all about her son and so started up a conversation about her new baby boy, names and all. It was just a little wake-up call about how much info people can find out about you in literally seconds.
So the pics went, I culled my facebook back to a select few people with the highest privacy setting for pics and just post images on my of my kids that aren’t face-on. I’ve relaxed the name rule and have come thisclose to just blowing the whole rule because I just tell myself I’m being silly. BUT, I’ve seen the google search words people have used to reach my blog and some of them rang alarm bells. At the end of the day, if I’m not totally comfortable with it, I’m not going to do it, which I think is more sensible than paranoid.
I am a part time wedding portrait photographer and I don’t think you are being paranoid. There are some serious weirdos out there. I am very careful not to use flowergirls, pageboys etc in advertising shots. However it could be hard on the photographer if he/she is hired to take the photographs and all the mothers refuse. Were you warned about this in advance?
Argh! Now I’m freaking out. Bloody internet creeps.
I’m now re-reading a few comments from some of the regular bloggers I read.
It’s funny. Now that I think about it, and what you guys have said, I’m always surprised at the transparency of pics with your kids on your blogs. There are heaps of them, and I don’t know why, but the thought of doing that with my kid kind of freaks me out. I always thought the Essential Baby crowd doing that too, esp. with nudie bum pics etc. was seriously odd. Too much like scrapbooking for my liking – dag-city!
The net’s a free for all. It makes me feel weird knowing anyone can see what my kid looks like.
Anyway, freedom of choice though, peeps. We’re all a bit different, thank christ for that.
I often wonder about this too. I used to frequent internet forums where other mum chat about their babies and you can form genuine friendships there so it isn’t unusual to post pictures of your babies there just as you would show your baby off in real life at get togethers. I used to share lots of pictures until one day it freaked me out and I pulled them all down. Now I don’t like any pictures of her face up on the net and I don’t like to use my daughters name in my posts (her first name) but that is because I chose an unpopular name for her and would hate to see more people using it!
Mia given you are in the public eye, you may be more likely to attract people interested in your life/family etc and for that reason, i can understand why you might need to weight things up a little more than me, but I honestly don’t experience this dilemma.
By IMO I think common sense should prevail. Like someone else mentioned, its about context – I would say that a picture of a group of anonymous kids playing musical instruments would be a very difficult thing to twist to meet a perverse, evil purpose. Any ‘arty’ photos of kids dressed up in provocative clothing, costumes, make up or limited clothing, I would be much more likely to think twice.
I refuse to let fear and risk management rule my life, particularly internet pervs who are insidiousy freaking everyone out and making us try and guess how their sick minds work. At the end of the day, we have no control over how people interpret what we say, do, photograph, express etc. all we can do is talk, act, photograph, express etc with our genuine intention and use our common sense about those things that we think could be misunderstood/misrepresented.
What a sad world if we never photographed or shared innocent beautiful mages of children doing things they enjoy like play, sing, dance…
Gotta say, I’m incredibly naive when it comes to photos and the like on the web. It took my IT husband to point out that putting photos of the girls (as babies) in a bath on facebook really wasn’t such a hot idea.
He’s expressed concern a few times about the amount of info that’s floating around in cyberspace about our family between my blog, twitter, facebook and the like…I try to be circumspect about putting too much “searchable” info out there but I’m a sharer by nature and I’m probably not careful enough.
This is a very interesting topic.
I have a blog which started off being private and no one could access it.
I have put pictures of my daughter up on it. I’ve had a talk to my husband about it, and how we feel about sharing photos of her.
We decided that we felt it was safe to share photos of her.
This is making me rethink though.
meant to say ‘photos of kids painting’ woops!
An old friend living overseas also recently asked me to email some photos of our family. Told her my camera is broken. I dont really know what she will do with them. IS that paranoid?
I am SOOO paranoid about photos on the internet. My friend posted photos of her recent party on her facebook page or whatever its called (I dont do facebook) and made her remove photos of me that were there. Another friend told me she saw them and knew I’d be shitty about it.
As for the kids photos, my sons preschool set up a website a few years ago and we had to sing a waver giving permission for photos of our kids to appear on the website. There would be no names used etc, just photos of kids painted etc. I wouldnt sign them. Simply because all it would take is for a sicko to have a look, find a cute kid, get the address and find his target. Maybe I am paranoid, but you cant be too careful with your kids.
I have that internal dialogue myself.
But because I am undecided about the safety issue I am inclined to favour the no photos position as there are no ramifications if society’s goalposts change.
However I suspect I have little control over this and I find it especially weird when strangers try to take pictures of my children in public places.
This has happened quite a few times. Usually without being asked. Eg: two men tried to pick my 4yo up to pose with them at the Archibald Fountain; saw some twenty somethings photographing both girls playing on the beach on Australia Day; an early teen boy took photos of my 9yo with his phone at a holiday acting class and put them on this wall. I know this because it turned out his sister goes to the same school and recognised her….
I don’t know. I think it depends who is putting it up on the net. I regularly snap my girls and have them on my blog as a means of allowing friends and family to catch up on our news and our growing girls.. I don’t post anything I feel would be risque. We’ve had our picture taken for print media and have been on telly a few times.. I think it’s about knowing and having some input into the images portrayed.. if the photos taken had been shown to you afterwards and you saw what was being put out there would you be more inclined to sign a release?
I personally don’t have a problem with it, within reason.
I use photos of my kids on my website to advertise my products and they have also been shown on my blog.
It is my belief that although there’s obviously perversion and abuse of children’s images on the internet, there’s also a lot of photos of children that are used in a much more innocent and positive manner.
As long as the photos are not in any way explicit or anything other than wholesome I have no issue with it.
I appreciate the comments regarding abuse of images not necessarily taking a sexual form (i.e. for soliciting donations or sympathy), but surely this is a 1 percenter and that alone wouldn’t deter me from posting images.
You’re not paranoid at all. No way in hell am I willingly putting my children’s photographs on the internet, I don’t even put my own up. There are no limits in cyberspace and many people take advantage of that.
It’s not even all about the pervs. One of my friends had a blog where she wrote about her son and posted pictures so that her out-of-state family could keep in contact. Then she found out some person was pretending to be her on a parenting website and posting pictures of her son. Nothing dodgy, didn’t use her name, but it definitely creeped her out.
I think it depends what the photos are of and where they are and who they’re with. God I’m a fence sitter on this one.
For the record, I’m super anal about pics of my kid on my blog (there’s one of them, and she’s tiny) or of anything slightly nudie on Facebook (there are always those bath shots, pool shots etc.) Anyway, I think that stuff’s possibly freakier more so than your situ Mia?
I don’t put photos of my kids on the internet. I’ve always wondered just what those women are thinking on Essential Baby when they put photos of their children in their signatures. Back in early 2000 I accidentally internet-stalked someone (she posted on a pregnancy news group, when she vanished several of us were worried about her so I found her details in the phone book and gave her a call) and it freaked me out how easy it had been to get this person’s address and phone number. After that I completely stopped using my children’s real names and have not put any photos anywhere they can be seen. I also refuse to allow schools to use their photos if the child’s name is attached to the photo.
Apart from my personal security, which is a major concern of mine because a) I have a very unusual surname that is only shared by relatives and b) my husband is away a lot since he’s in the Navy, I don’t think it’s fair for parents to use their children’s images without permission. Yes we are expected to give consent for almost everything our children do but just like showing nudie photos at a 21st this is something that can highly embarrass a child when they get older.
Also, there are some freaks on the internet who use other people’s photos for personal gain. There have been several cases that I know of where women have used photos of premature babies to get sympathy, gifts and money from women who didn’t realise that the story which went along with the baby was made up and the baby didn’t belong to the storyteller at all.
That’s interesting about kids being on relative’s facebook. A family member has just put pics up from a recent party – lots of my kids. So having just said that I don’t post pics of my kids on the net, am I right to not want others putting them up? I’m guessing no. Might ask how high the privacy on the facebook account is.
PARANOID!!!!
Of course there’s a chance the photo’s will end up being used for evil, but in the scheme of things – seriously – what are the chances?
There’s a chance you’ll be the victim of idetity theft, there’s a chance you’ll be hit by a bus, there’s a chance your home will be burgled … there’s always a chance something will go wrong with everything you do – but weigh it up.
As a society we have become so risk averse – nothing can just be fun and carefree anymore! Everyone’s suspicious! It’s awful!
I personally think it’s OTT to think that having a non sexual, innocent photo of your child put on the internet is actually a risk at all.
I’ve gotta say I completely agree with you Mia. One of my girlfriends recently discovered a pic of her daughter on her sister-in-law’s Facebook profile and totally flipped her lid. The sister-in-law couldn’t see the issue – she just thought it was a great photo of herself. Until this discussion with my girlfriend I hadn’t given much thought to the issue but no, my kid’s image will not appear in cyberspace.
Re your boob on the internet – wouldn’t worry me as I feel like half the local shopping centre have seen me breastfeeding anyway!
I’m with you Mia. I don’t like it that I’m paranoid, I don’t like it that society today makes me want to be paranoid. I think we do have a right to say no. I get a bit thingy about being in the city and having tourists want to take photos of the kids – it just doesn’t feel right to me and at times I’ve just outright said “no – don’t do that please”. It’s just that there’s so many ways of getting images to so many people without us having any control at all. I appreciate organisations, schools, etc that ask before taking photos.
As a child prob 9-11 yrs old I was approached at swimming pools by older men & told I’m beautiful and can they take a photo of me in my swimsuit…?? Happened a couple of times! And different men, swimming pools too. Once I let one photograph my face and another time I just ran off. Wierd?
Thank you for posting this – I thought you had been in my head with the dialogue that goes on… From saying no to all photography of my daughter being posted on the internet I have now started to sign a couple of forms in the places that I know that photos can be used but no names… but still not sure that I am doing the right thing. I remember googling some images for ideas of a Dora birthday cake to make for my madam and was linked through to a family’s blog and personal photos at home. I am quite sure they didn’t realise that they would be able to be accessed by someone doing an innocent search for images of Dora themed birthday cakes!
I dunno, maybe that was a bit OTT? People all over blogland put their kids up and seem fine with it as long as salient details such as names, addresses etc are not revealed. There are obviously photos that you should never put up, like your kids in the bath etc, but I reckon mostly the innocent stuff is fine. Of course I don’t have to make that choice though, which is a point worth making.
Mia I am also paranoid about this sort of thing. I don’t want photos of my children on the internet as who knows where those pics could end up. Its a shame that this is what the world has come to though!
In this day and age, with the world in the state that it is… I dont think you were being too paranoid.
Lets not look at our world through rose-coloured glasses. There are alot of sick people out there.
At first it was just taking naked pictures of children that was dangerous..but now with all the technology out there..people can take any photo no matter how innocent and turn it into something degrading.
It is up to your own convictions. There really is no RIGHT answer here.