Do you put pictures of your kids on the internet?

I just found out my sister has a whole album of my daughter on facebook. It instantly made me uncomfortable. The only reason I found out was because my other sister asked my permission about putting my daughter's pictures on her facebook account and I said no.

So, I'm going to ask her to take them down. I'm also contemplating a group email to let everyone know that they do not have our permission to post her pictures on the web.

Because our family is so spread out (Canada, Australia, and the US) we have a family photo list. The reason I still send out emails, as opposed to having a blog or web-hosted photos, is because I can control who sees them. I've heard too many horror stories of blogs and photo sites being hacked, weirdos leaving sick feed back, etc, to feel comfortable doing it any other way.

So I'm thinking of sending a group email just letting everyone know how we stand on pictures being posted.

Thoughts?

You and I are likely in the minority on this one, but I do feel the same as you. My kids are much older - my son will be a teen in a few months. I feel very uneasy about people having access to their pictures on the internet. I do have a photo page and can send links to friends and family I trust, but I do ask specifically that family and friends do not post pictures of my kids on blogs and such and so far, it hasn't been a problem and people are very understanding. I think it may sound more personal if you did it in a phone call rather than a letter/email.

On the other side, I often ask parents when their kids are in a shot if I can share it with family members. Most parents look at me like I have 3 heads and have no problem.

I have pictures of my kids on my myspace, but my page is private. Same with my DH. DH's sisters both had pictures of my kids on their myspace pages, and I asked them to take them down, which they did. I don't know who looks at their pages, and I think they should have asked me first.

It's incredibly inappropriate for someone to post pictures of someone ELSE'S children online. Wow. That crosses some serious boundaries :dizzy:

Just because you send the pictures out via email doesn't necessarily make them any more 'secure' since emails can be easily viewed en-route, forwarded, mis-delivered et... just a thought you might want to consider.

It is totally acceptable for you to request that your children are not posted online - even if it is the person who took the picture posting it. It is your child.

I have heard stories of parents who had their kid's photos and/or names posted (on a blog, used as a model for an ebay clothing sale, etc). The person would buy something from them on ebay, for example, thus getting their address...then come kidnap the kid.
Yes, this stuff is real. Yes, it's FREAKY!!!
For myself, I DO have a blog and I DO post pictures of my kids on there. I do not ever post their names there, nor do I post my name, nor my hubby's. I do not give any specifics about where I live. Not even which state I live in. I don't know how often strangers happen across my blog...most of the folks there are my friends and extended family who want to see and hear about my kids!
Now I guess I could be really paranoid and not even do that...but frankly I think there has to be some kind of balance... I want to share news and pictuers with my friends and family. I guess I could make my blog a 'members only' blog (where someone has to get my personal permission to be able to view it). That might be a good idea...but a lot of my family has slow dial-up connections and can't get photos via email and things like that, so I like having the blog.

Oh, I wanted to add that I'm currently working on a post about babywearing. I am putting some pictures in it-some are my own, and some are from others. I made sure to ask permission about each photo though before I post anything! I wouldn't dream of posting someone ELSES photos without permission. That is so rude! I don't care if it's family, parents have the right to decide whether their kids' photos are online or not!

I guess I should clarify that I'm not totally against my kids' pictures being online. But I like to know where the pictures are and who has access to them before I decide to do that. Obviously, that is not a foolproof method, but it feels right to me.

It's incredibly inappropriate for someone to post pictures of someone ELSE'S children online. Wow. That crosses some serious boundaries :dizzy:

It was my little sister, and she ended up feeling really bad when I brought it up. She was in tears. She would never do anything to hurt my daughter, and she just never considered why we wouldn't want her photos online, but once I explained it she was Ok.

Just because you send the pictures out via email doesn't necessarily make them any more 'secure' since emails can be easily viewed en-route, forwarded, mis-delivered et... just a thought you might want to consider.

Yep, I've considered it. I have A LOT more control over 30 people on an email list then I do of the ENTIRE internet.

It was my little sister, and she ended up feeling really bad when I brought it up. She was in tears. She would never do anything to hurt my daughter, and she just never considered why we wouldn't want her photos online, but once I explained it she was Ok.
.

She sounds like my sister (except, uh, that my sister totally wouldn't have understood :rolleyes)

People who don't have kids but have a tenuous connection to them (i.e. relative, friend of the mother), often times IME tend to have an inappropriate concept of what is acceptable and what isn't.

As of now, I do have their pics up.

Nope, I am not comfortable with my dd's pics being online.

It doesn't bother me.

Doesn't bother me.

-Angela

It doesn't bother me, BUT I won't post last names or other personal info that might lead someone to me or to my neighborhood.

That being said, my pathetic little website is not available through a general search. I have to give you the link, so people will not be randomly wandering by any time soon.

Does not bother me. See my avatar.

I have tons and tons and tons of pics up online, though some of them are private so only I can see them. But, they aren't on facebook/myspace because, quite honestly I don't trust those sorts of sites. They're up on my smugmug account. It serves a couple purposes: a) my whole family can see pics whenever b) I can easily limit the viewing if I want to and c) it serves as my back-up for all photos, so that should my computer ever crash, I KNOW I'll still have all of them.

Right now most of the pics of DS are viewable by the public, but that might very well change later on as DS gets past hte baby stage. We'll just have to wait and see :)

i do not want pictures of my child online for the whole internet to see. i have set up a private blog that people need a password to log onto so i can share photos and videos with family members and friends who live far away from me. i will be putting up some reminder about not sharing photos without my permission. so far t just has ultra sound pictures though :lol

I do put my kids' pics up, but my personal album is password protected so only family/friends can see it. My mom lives on the coast and I'm in the Midwest so this is how she stays connected to my kids, but it's pw protected like I mentioned. I do have a carseat album though that is public w/ pics of my kids in carseats though.

I do put my kids' pics up, but my personal album is password protected so only family/friends can see it. My mom lives on the coast and I'm in the Midwest so this is how she stays connected to my kids, but it's pw protected like I mentioned. I do have a carseat album though that is public w/ pics of my kids in carseats though.

mine, too. its password protected. There was this weird group of teens on myspace stealing baby pics from ppls PUBLIC albums and calling it some sort of "myspace adoption" There were so many "adoption" sites and some of the captions on the pics they stole had sexual reference to the kids (ie "Look at the sexy ***) They have been removed though. It may not bother some people to have pics of their kids online for everyone and anyone to see. But it is a big no-no in my book. JMO.

We have some on flickr, but they're not publicly viewed (password protected)... I would never put them up if they could be identified (no face, only vague pictures).

My dad was an investigator who worked child abuse--apparently people will take pictures of other people's kids off the internet and photo shop them in to really disgusting, child-porn images.

Once you put it out there, you don't really know who is viewing it and what they are doing with the image.

i have a lot of dd on her blog so family and friends can keep up to date on her antics. however, like a pp said, not a particle of information as to her last name, what state she lives in or anything that could identify what state etc. no pictures of our home.... nor are there headings to search for the blog.

but after reading this, I think i will pw protect it too!!

I have a lot of pictures up online, in my livejournal, on myspace, etc and very few of them are "friends only." My myspace is totally public, and I've got a whole slideshow on there.

It's not something I worry about at all.

I perfectly agree with you.
I am completely against posting my childrens' pictures on the internet or publishing them in any other way for that matter.
I wouldn't call myself paranoid (or am I??) but I am also very hesitant to give out info such as my childrens' DOB or gender (and names of course) etc. when signing up for stuff on the internet, filling out surveys etc. Information is power and there just is no control once it gets out there.

I'm fine with it. I also don't have a problem with my kids pics being in a school year book, church directory or local newspaper. In addition, we don't have an unlisted phone number, so anyone who looks in a phone book can find our address and phone number. As well, I live on a street where people regularly walk by my house and I do allow my children to play in the side yard. So, people see my kids and know where we live. I don't see any way to avoid it, so I'm not going to sweat the pictures on our blog, or the ones that I've allowed my children to model products for companies for. I believe that God has a plan for us all, and none of them involve immortality, so this is just one area where I refuse to let myself worry too much.

We have pictures in our public albums on Picasa, though we're very careful about nakey ones. We have public and private albums.

We have a private blog, invitation only to view, so we can feel free to write about anything without any compromise to our privacy.

I'll have to check through our pictures and see if there are ones of our friend's kids in our blog or albums. Obviously we wouldn't post any nakey pics we might have though I hadn't considered other pictures being a problem. Personally I don't care, though just because I don't doesn't mean I shouldn't be sensitive if someone else does.

I have pictures on my facebook profile, but its "friends only." It's the easiest way to show friends and family.

I have no problem with my kids pictures being online. I think the chances of someone seeing my kids pictures and trying to find a way to kidnap them is about 1 in a million. I just don't believe this is a common thing. My kids pictures are in my sig line and other places and I don't feel uncomfortable about that at all.

my DH and i have been arguing about this because he has put some videos of DS up on youtube, including some where DS is naked. it makes me uncomfortable. i know we can make them private, but it's more cumbersome to access. but reading these posts, i think i'm going to insist on making them private. not only to avoid creeps but also because i don't want some social services person contacting us and saying we are being inappropriate etc.

this is my first post ever - i hope it turns out right!

I have heard stories of parents who had their kid's photos and/or names posted (on a blog, used as a model for an ebay clothing sale, etc). The person would buy something from them on ebay, for example, thus getting their address...then come kidnap the kid.
Yes, this stuff is real. Yes, it's FREAKY!!!


Could you list a link to information on this happening. I'm having a hard time
trying to search any information on this subject of kidnappings threw ebay listings.

It doesn't bother me but I ALWAYS ask before posting a picture with someone else's child in it. (It's always my child and another child but I still ask) Even if I know they post pics of their kids I still ask. I would be uncomfortable doing it otherwise. I think a group email would be a great idea.

I have heard stories of parents who had their kid's photos and/or names posted (on a blog, used as a model for an ebay clothing sale, etc). The person would buy something from them on ebay, for example, thus getting their address...then come kidnap the kid.
Yes, this stuff is real. Yes, it's FREAKY!!!


Where did you hear about this? It sounds like one of those urban legend stories that get emailed around. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't mind having my kids pictures online, but I'm VERY careful about where I post them. Right now, I have pics of my kiddos on my myspace account, but my profile is set to private so no one but my friends can view them.

I've only posted their cousins pictured with them, and only once. I hesitated before I did it, but I still did it. My sister in law hasn't said anything, but then again I think she's changed her email address. But from now on, I'm not going to post them without asking first. I'm fairly new to the internet, just coming out of my shell so to speak. It seems like everyone I know has been on email and disscussion forums and I'm the last to join in. So, when I hesitated I thought, "maybe I'm too old fashioned. Kids now adays..." Come to think of it, I don't remember seeing pictures of other people's kids on my friend's blogs.

Nope, i think i never will post my kid's pictures, and posthing the names well, um, that's another issue.

We blog and post pics of our family online. We have people all over the US and its a nice way for them to feel closer. My mom was "going through withdraw" a couple weeks ago because we hadn't uploaded new pics.

We host a web site. We have it blocked from all searches. We also have a stat counter thing. We can see the IP's of the people that have accessed our page and where they are in the US and all sorts of info...I bairly understand it all but DH does and thats all that counts! DH is a computer programer and he feels safe so I trust him completely!

When I have extra kids in the photo with my own I try to ask if it's ok and give them the site in case they want to get the pic.

No. My children's real names and pictures have never appeared on the internet. At their school, I sign a special form indicating I do not wish their pictures posted.

My live journal calls all of us by "code names". And no pictures other than me and hubby appear there.

I'm totally in the minority also! At first I was even uncomfortable sending out dd's pic in emails, but have kinda become agreeable to that since our family is spread out. I do not feel comfortable placing our photos anywhere where they can publically be viewed. I had a fit when I found out that my "friend" had posted my dd's photo in her My Space profile as here main picture! It was a picture that had been taken of that girl holding dd at a baby shower. It didn't have dd's name, but i was shpcked that it was on there-thankfully she removed it after not too long. It is definatly inappropriate to post a photo of someone else or their children without permission.

I don't get the paranoidI guess, because your child will be seen by people at the grocery store as well, or clothing store, or mall, people at school, teachers (whom you cant always trust). I mean. If you have your family picture taken at some photo place, who knows who the photographer is, they might have copies of your child laying at home. The dr, he knows everything about your child, can you always trust a dr? Can you always trust the photographer at the store? Can you trust the priest at the church? Or the neighbor next door?

Just saying....

Sure be cautious, don't throw out where you live, and full names, but your child is going to be seen by strangers, online or not.