I love shooting pictures of my kids. Of relatives kids. I love seeing photos of the kids of my friends and colleagues. They’re an immense part of people’s lives.
I’m not mystified by the outrage that some folks have over photos being posted on social media sites, but it’s sad. I’m not sure the outrage is warranted.
I just shot photos of my cousin’s kids. They are 9 weeks old. I also recently shot a graduation photo of my daughter. She’s 21.
IMHO, there’s no reason not to post these photos. I would absolutely ask permission of the babies’ parents before doing so. But with that permission? You betcha.
You ever get crap from friends or relatives about posting photos of children? Do you find the idea offensive or unsafe?
It’s ridiculous to have a problem with it, except in a very rare situation like your family is in the witness protection program or something. People are funny. There used to be this whole “danger” thing about communicating with anyone on the Internet because they’re probably all serial killers looking for victims, but that was back when not many people used it, so it was a mystery. Now since everyone and most of their moms use it, it’s no big deal any more than it is to worry about someone walking down the street seeing your face, but some people still haven’t dropped the mindset.
And I’ve posted pictures of other people’s kids without asking, and vice versa. I wouldn’t post a kid’s picture along with their full name and address or anything, but even if I did it probably wouldn’t matter. Your kid isn’t that special, people, they probably won’t gather any stalkers just by someone seeing an innocent picture of them.
Couldn’t agree more. The only reason I’d ask a parent is out of a profusion of caution- in case they are one of “those” parents who believe the world is about to kidnap their kid.
Oddly enough, the only grief I’ve ever gotten was from an adult couple who didn’t want photos posted that included them at a picnic or dinner or something (can’t recall exactly - it’s been years.) I didn’t even make snarky captions!! But I did edit the pics to cut them out. Party-poopers.
I will say, I don’t think I’d want some pics of my daughter as a young 'un posted. For example, we’ve got a photo of her and her bestest friend at age 6 or 7 in a bubble bath together, both wearing shower caps that were way too large for them. Very cute pic, but I wouldn’t want some perv getting his jollies with it. Fortunately, it was taken in pre-internet days and the other girl’s mother and I have the only 2 copies, so I think our now-27 y/o daughters are safe.
Those kinds of pix do cross a very bright line for parents- and for law enforcement as well ! My Ex shot a photo of me giving my son a bath. We were both in the bathtub. Because- as was always the case at bath time with The Man-Cub™- he was screaming blue murder when I shampoo’ed his head up, I told my Ex to run for the camera. Since I was sitting in the tub with him, I shampoo’ed up MY head as well and faked the same heartbroken sobbing face. Hilarious photo. She didn’t have the good sense to lean over enough to let the edge of the tub crop out son’s delicate bits. Didn’t matter to me, or to her- but nowadays I suspect a photo lab on the corner ( if they still existed ) would be calling up the P’leecemen.
Pity, that. There’s nothing criminal about delighting in your babies’ bath time or in being bemused by their caterwauling. As for inadvertent private bits in shots, well my god it’s my kid. I could care less- but I know that there are people out there now, as FCM pointed out, who would care a whole lot.
Something got lost in the translation in the last few decades, methinks…
I understand this argument but, at the same time I don’t understand it. Like, let’s say I’m REALLY into kids sexually (I’m not, I swear), the internet is FULL of things I can masturbate to other than someone’s Facebook pictures.
“But Diosa,” you are thinking, “Perverts are perverts-- they are so perverse that they’d probably rather masturbate to the unsuspecting victim just because.” Ok, fair enough, but shouldn’t that logic extend to. . . well, everybody? Like, some weirdo has probably wanked one out to my Facebook pictures, should I just not post Facebook pictures ever again because some random weirdo might jerk off to them?
Perhaps. But as an adult, you are in control of the media on your Facebook page. Kids are not.
Interesting timing- a colleague of mine got onto her Facebook page today and quite vehemently demanded that people she was interacting with NOT tag her in photos or locate her on jobs they were doing. ( Like me, she freelances so her “office” is wherever she’s working that day/week ).
I don’t care about that kind of stuff but clearly she hit a threshold of track-ability and locating of herself and her work space. I respect it. Everyone has their own thresholds with this kind of incessant social media.
I always laugh really hard when people post things on Facebook, because it’s a pretty clear indicator that they have literally no idea how to use it. She can go in and block all tags, all photos, lock down her profile to next to nothing (she can even sent it for individual people, if she’s so inclined), etc. And yes, that extends to her controlling what other people post of her.
I post videos of kids as young as seven performing, but luckily the school had the foresight to get every parent to sign a release on their children’s behalf as soon as they enter the program. So all that nonsense is not an issue and I can post videos of very talented kids likethese.
Many of my “friends” on Facebook who have children use their kids as their own profile picture. A sizeable portion of those do little else besides talk about their kids and post innumerable photos of them.
Our school district, in an abundance of caution, has now banned picture taking at events by anyone but the parents or grandparents of the children. So, if you’re a photographer and found a great scene of boys playing ball in the sunset and took a picture of it, they would call the police, and in this small town, the police would have no problem escorting you away, along with probably questioning, taking your camera, etc.
It’s insane and stupid and I’m ashamed of our otherwise excellent schools. People are stupid panic monsters most of the time, and have no understanding of risk and statistics.
But don’t you think there’s a difference between YOU posting photos of your minor children on Facebook and ME posting photos of YOUR minor children on Facebook?
I don’t want pictures of me online, and my daughter is an adult, but if she were a child I wouldn’t want someone to post pictures of her. I just don’t like the way I look.
It might be not as bad if the child weren’t tagged in the picture, and a lot depends on how old the child is. After fifteen or so, and reasonably dressed and sober, then it’s her decision.
Yeah, I mean, there are some pictures of me as a kid that I wouldn’t want everyone online to see.
And once you put it on the internet, it’s possibly there forever. People save the strangest things.
Kids don’t have the ability to decide that they really wouldn’t prefer to have this or that picture attached to their name forever online. For instance, I know of a lady who does extended breastfeeding. I don’t have a problem with that. But I doubt her future teenaged son will be thrilled to know that when he was three years old, she posted a picture of him breastfeeding on Facebook and who knows, it might still be floating around on the Internet. That is an extreme example, but still, I think most people have baby/childhood pictures that they don’t want spread around.
So at least think about that before you post their pictures on Instagram/Facebook/Whatever.
I’m just glad this wasn’t an issue for me.
When I was a wee one, our high school somehow got an Internet connection when it was a really big deal to have one, and the school just had to draw up arcane policy documents that served the twofold purpose of the school system, namely to protect the children! and ensure that kids get properly punished for wrongdoing. Therefore, the following rules were put into place:
Students must never give out any personal information online so predators couldn’t get them.
Students must always identify themselves when communicating online so that citizens witnessing a conduct violation can identify the misbehaving student and report the incident to the student’s school.
I can understand why people don’t want to post photos like those online, because they are very personal. What I don’t understand is the people who will look at a photo like that and say “OMG, child porn!” No, it’s not - it’s a picture of a nekked young’un doing what they do best: strutting around in a completely unselfconscious way, totally oblivious to the fact that they’re only dressed in their birthday suit. It’s that total innocence which makes the photo charming; how could anyone confuse it with porn (which is the exact opposite of innocent)?
Your doppelganger is a harbinger of illness or death. And images can absorb energies from people who have used them, so once a picture has been posted on the internet, you should never use it again.
Not only that, every time a picture is taken, a little piece of your soul is shattered off. Of course, this can be a good thing: you can never really die while a single piece of your soul still exists. but it makes the soul less stable
We never used pictures in my university share house. Instead, we depended on the Vegetables of Dorian Gray to keep us healthy.
When folks decided that “child porn” included anything with nudity?
Or when they redefined it again, so as not to include “art”: nudity is okay, but undressing is not. Visible genitals are okay, except under vaguely defined circumstances like when they are “the focus of attention”.
The people who makes these laws/rules/rulings are acting with good intentions I’m sure, but they always seem to trip over the Rule of Unintended Consequences.
Like when California tried to ban porn where adults pretend to be under age. The judge who overturned that one agreed with the Plaintiffs that the wording of the law could cause someone putting on a production of Romeo and Juliet might fear arrest for so doing. (Romeo and Juliet are underage by modern standards, and the implication that they have sex is quite clear.)
