Is it risky to post photos ...

[Dan Chang]

of your loved ones, such as children's photos? I assume that most people who visit websites like this one are decent people, but if some are of questionable character, would you post photos of your children? I just wonder. Maybe this question has been asked before, but I am not sure about it.

My rule:
I do not post my family pictures on the internet
I do not post my friends pictures on the internet

 

[NelsonFoto]

Good question. Another question occurs to me: There are those who post photos of their family without question, and those who worry, like me and most here. What does that say about those who do and those who don't? Or does it say anything?

If you can penetrate the perimeter strung with claymores around my property, avoid being mauled by the mastiffs, manage to evade the motion detectors and somehow outrun my slugs.... hell, yer welcome to em.

 

[fredus]

I post regularely my daughter in my blog without a concern. I don't know why I should be concern. If you start being concern, you don't take your children out of the house ...
I'm gonna have twins in a little less than 3 weeks and you can bet that they will appear on the web ! 🙂

Fred

 

[Pherdinand]

hey fred good luck with those twins.

 

[wlewisiii]

I post without much concern. And if there were to be a problem, well, I own a 7.62mm solution.

William

 

[unky tone]

I posed a similar question to a police officer on a paedophile-taskforce unit some months ago at work. Her reply was that statistically most sex offenders are aquainted with or related to their victims. She was more concerned with teenage / children online chat rooms. Organised paedophiles tend to be creatures of habit (or the cloth) - generally they exist in circles where they are exposed to emotionally vulnerable, socially inexperienced kids, and occupy a position of trust ie : clergy, teachers, scout leaders or youth group leaders, etc.

I personally have no problems posting a picture or two of my kids, but I'm careful as to which ones I post.

I wouldn't post a picture of other kids without their parent's permission, and I've never taken a photo of a child where I didn't ask the parent's permission first.

 

[Frank Granovski]

I don't mind posting a couple of pics of my wife and my baby. I don't mind even less posting pics of my old girlfriends. 😎

 

[RJBender]

Raid,

Check out this web site. It says there are 330 registered sex offenders in the Pensacola area: http://www.familywatchdog.us/

If you can Google your name and city and get your phone number and street address you should not post pictures of your children. You can have Google delete your name and address online.

To change the topic, have you been down to Johnson Beach on Perdido Key? There are 5 miles of deserted beach with dunes and sea oats. There aren't too many places along the Gulf of Mexico where you can see miles of beach and ocean with no buildings. 😉 If you like to photograph herons close up, just take a bucket of bait to the beach. 🙂

R.J.

 

[jaapv]

What kind of society are we living in that these questions need to be asked? Any animal will defend its young to the death, and we find that these whacko's are out of prison and living next door after a few months in jail.Sometimes I am glad I am not twenty any more and only have to winess a limited number of decades of increasing madness. Having blown my top I would like to add that it seems to be highly unlikely for such a person to track down an anonymous kid in a harmless photograph on the net, when he has rich pickings in his neighbourhood.

 

[RJBender]

What kind of society are we living in that these questions need to be asked? Any animal will defend its young to the death, and we find that these whacko's are out of prison and living next door after a few months in jail.Sometimes I am glad I am not twenty any more and only have to winess a limited number of decades of increasing madness. Having blown my top I would like to add that it seems to be highly unlikely for such a person to track down an anonymous kid in a harmless photograph on the net, when he has rich pickings in his neighbourhood.

Twenty years ago, this stuff happened but it didn't get much attention in the news. Convicted sex offenders didn't have to register.

The name of your child, a photo of your child and your home address is too much information to give to strangers. Anyone can read these posts. If you want to post pictures of your kids, don't use your real name as your RFF name and don't show your location under your avatar. Raid's wife is not being unreasonable IMO.

R.J.

 

[raid]

Raid,

Check out this web site. It says there are 330 registered sex offenders in the Pensacola area: http://www.familywatchdog.us/

If you can Google your name and city and get your phone number and street address you should not post pictures of your children. You can have Google delete your name and address online.

To change the topic, have you been down to Johnson Beach on Perdido Key? There are 5 miles of deserted beach with dunes and sea oats. There aren't too many places along the Gulf of Mexico where you can see miles of beach and ocean with no buildings. 😉 If you like to photograph herons close up, just take a bucket of bait to the beach. 🙂

R.J.

RJ: How come you know quite a lot about Penscaola and near-by areas? You must have lived here. I will see if I can have Google remove my street address. Thanks for the tips.

 

[RJBender]

RJ: How come you know quite a lot about Penscaola and near-by areas? You must have lived here. I will see if I can have Google remove my street address. Thanks for the tips.

Raid,

I lived in Mobile from 1981-1988 and traveled quite a bit along the Gulf Coast. I remember when most of the beaches on the Gulf were just sea oats and natural dunes. Johnson Beach is the only beach in the area where you can experience the beaches like they used to be. I think it's 4 or 5 miles long.

I like to visit Orange Beach, AL in September... fewer crowds, off season rates, etc. The last 2 years I had to make last minute changes to my vacation schedule due to hurricanes. 🙁

R.J.

 

[jan normandale]

Raid to move the topic to another angle there is a group called the Philadelphia Leica User Group, they have 10 commandments of photography.... number one is "1) Thy children are ugly. Do not make us look upon them." so if you want you can always use that as a legitmization for avoidance. IE you don't want to transgress a Leica commandment ... (humour) Personally I aspire to owning a Leica and thats why I have never posted shots of my handsome son or beautiful daughter
Anyway here is the link it's kind of fun and aimed at Leica users by Leica users.

http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/cassidy/leicaslacker/plug/10/index.html

 

[nwcanonman]

Raid, You have posted several photos of your daughter on Photo.net.

There are crazies on this Forum and on Photo.net...several are obvious.

You made a safety decision some time ago. Please explain your thinking.

...........
Hmmmmm, I wonder who djon thinks are obviously "crazies"? :angel:

 

[fredus]

If you start removing pictures of your child on the web, you don't allow your child to go out at all and you keep him home all the time .... I don't see a problem posting my child's picture on my photoblog. I've never understood the rationale behind avoiding doing so ... So far in this thread there is no good reason ...

 

[paulfitz]

My two are older, they are probably already on the web in the dating sites! They don't want me to post my picture! Something about the universe not being big enough? and out there? Maybe it's a Seinfeld reference 🙂

RJBender: When did you take that great heron shot? I thought Ivan took out most of the beaches around there. I drive through about every 6 weeks, I should stop. Gulf Islands is kind of like that. Down here it's all high rise.

 

[nwcanonman]

If you start removing pictures of your child on the web, you don't allow your child to go out at all and you keep him home all the time .... I don't see a problem posting my child's picture on my photoblog. I've never understood the rationale behind avoiding doing so ... So far in this thread there is no good reason ...

.............
While possibly blunter than I would have put it, I have to agree with fredus.
When I go to public events with a camera, I've gotten strange/hostile looks from parents when I include their children in some shots. What the heck are people so paranoid of these days? Yes, there are molesters out there, but they don't go to crowded public places and take photos of fully clothed children to sell on the internet!
I volunteer with our county's Sheriffs Dept, BIG background check. I work daily with vuneralbe adults and children, more background checks.
Yet, I'm supposed to feel guilty if I photograph your child in public? Let's get over it. :bang:
Let's make sure those who ARE caught molesting are put away for a looong time and monitor them the rest of their lives.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

Why? Didn't you know that everyone with a camera is a sex offender?

It's stupid, really. I can actually vouch for parents sometimes being too overprotective. When I went on the chorus trip to New York to sing at Carnegie when I was a sophomore, I had to beg and beg and beg my mother to let me go. I was even paying for over half the trip and I *still* had to beg her. She was thinking that there would be a killer/stalker/rapist around every corner. Even today, knowing that I want to go to school in New York, she still really doesn't want me to go there. She herself doesn't want to do anything anymore for fear of other people. Kind of sad, really. We live in Iowa. She doesn't even like going to Des Moines.

 

[keithslater]

I think I would be more worried about posting a strangers photo while out doing "street photography" and pissing them off.

 

[sf]

Well, the world is an imperfect place, and there are trolls out there. Post according to your sense of things. If you allow your worries about trolls to get to you, the quality of work we see on this site will drop - even if a only little. My perspective is that defiance is the best response to the threat of the darker side of society. Tucking tail and hiding may be the wrong thing to do. But there is a sacrifice, sometimes.

Honestly, it isn't 'safe' in the sense that 'safe' means totally secure - but the quality of membership on this site is uniquely high, and that counts for something.