Photos of your children and Facebook

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, you are being unreasonable. There is no copyright on your kid's face. Do you veil him outside, a la Michael Jackson?

Also, the pedophile panic is so ridiculous and overblown. You didn't say it, but I know that's what you're thinking. "What if someone icky SEES my child?!?" *clutches pearls*

you're an idiot. did you ever hear of right to privacy? do you want the world to see a picture of you hee hawing at your stupid jokes on DCUM?

OP here....see this is a problem I have. I truly believe we all have a right to privacy and our privacy should be respected by others. Unfortunately, with todays technology it seems like people don't care about that anymore. I only have about 100 people I am "friends" with and I know every single one of them personally. SIL, just adds people she meets once and never takes them off.

There are many people who feel as you do, so don't worry about the rude posts. Whether you're a professional photographer or not, you have every right to not want your child's face posted on facebook. We feel the same.

[Anonymous]

Honest question -- why is posting a picture of a kid on FB different than walking down a busy street with said kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honest question -- why is posting a picture of a kid on FB different than walking down a busy street with said kid?

I don't understand that either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honest question -- why is posting a picture of a kid on FB different than walking down a busy street with said kid?

The issue is not that the parent doesn't want the child seen. It is just the prevalence of the image and the lack of privacy it affords the child. Couldn't the same question be asked of any of us? Does walking down the street equate to having our pictures plastered all over the internet? Ultimately, I agree that there is probably little harm that could come from having the images online. And I say this as someone whose sister received vulgar phone calls as a child after being featured in a newspaper article with pictures. But I do see why parents would just prefer to maintain control over pictures of their children.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand the OPs reasoning, but it is still her right to ask that the pictures be removed.

I have seen too much personal information on there before and asked someone to remove it. It was not photo related. It was a very crude description of a test I had at the fertility clinic. I tell my sister everything, but not all of that needs to be on facebook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honest question -- why is posting a picture of a kid on FB different than walking down a busy street with said kid?

OP here. I know who some of SIL's "friends" are. Some are not such great people. In this case, there is much more personal information being given than just walking down the street. Names, places, etc. I don't walk down the street giving 300 random people I don't know my personal information, do you?

[Anonymous]

OP again...I hope that did not come off as snarky...it was not meant to be. I also should have mentioned that info in the original post as well.

[Anonymous]

You're not being unreasonable, OP. It's just hard to control. I don't like photos of myself on FB, but everyone is so obsessed that every event ends up on FB.

[Anonymous]

Two points here: this disagreement / photo idea is b/w you and your SIL (or whomever) and doesn't involve your kid. So remember that however mad you are at the person, keep your kid out. Second: there are many reasons to keep your kid's photos out. Sure, pediophiles scare me, but whatever your reason is, you need to be clear about it. If it's b/c other photos interfere w/ your business, then you need to explain how.

I am ruthless about keeping my kid's photo off the web. I'm in the bodyguard industry (think Federal, not celebrity) and I am very familiar w/ nutjobs who target the family instead of the person they don't like. And yes, my family and friends think I am the nutty one: fine. I tell them all: the second someone goes after my kid, and I track that back to you: there is no where for you to hide. Sure, it's unlikely, but you're talking about putting my kid at risk. And I send them all lots and lots of hard copy photos, or rarely email photos that I deem acceptable (no names, identifying locations, etc.). So they get their 'fix' of photos, being connected, whatever, w/o any risk to LO.

A colleague's 12 y/o girl is a star softball pitcher. Had her photo in the local paper! And then on FB, a 40 y/o man contacted her daughter: got her name from the paper, saw her FB page, recognized the neighborhood from the girl's profile photo w/ her new bicycle. Told daughter via FB he'd love to meet her after her named school or named neighborhood. School and newspaper said it wasn't their problem. All parents need to be extra careful about posting photos.

[Anonymous]

OP,

I'm more lenient with photos of my children but I do insist that anyone posting them have very strict privacy settings. I know that many people believe that this is overkill, and I can understand that. I realize that the chance of something untoward happening to my child thanks to a picture on facebook are incredibly low. Nonetheless, I am the mother. I get to make that call on whether it is unreasonable or not.

For those who are saying it's ridiculous, you simply don't know what is in somebody's background. I was subjected to an attempted kidnapping as a child. I ended up being fine but obviously incredibly traumatic. This was by my mother's second husband, who was for a short period of time, my stepfather. They divorced long before this happened, but the man found out, through major efforts, that my mother was involved in another relationship and he tried to kidnap me in retaliation.

Oddly enough, my mother always had a fear that he would try to "snatch" me. People thought she was nuts.

You never know what mom has a hunch about something or a fear that might seem unfounded, but is not. So, my request to all of you is: when you hear of a parent asking you to be more cautious with their children than you think is necessary, respect their request even if you can't understand or identify or agree with it.