Innocent Photos Of The Children?
AdventureDad | August 2If you’re like most parents you take lots of photos of your kids. This has become a lot easier with the digital cameras although many of the photos end up on the computer and never get printed. But have you ever thought about what kind of photos you’re taking of your kids? I’m well aware of problems with pedophiles but I sometimes forget that people at the photo lab don’t know me and have no idea of my intentions. The lab rules differ widely between countries but in general, their duty is to call the police in case they see questionable photos. That’s no easy task and mistakes happen. A couple of weeks ago I read an article (you might need to click on an ad to read the article) about a normal family who got accused of “child pornography” and “sexual exploitation of a minor” after printing some family photos of a recent camping trip . It’s a fascinating and scary read about a family who suddenly are being treated like pedophiles. It all seemed very innocent and this makes me wonder, could this happen to me? I take tons of photos and rarely do thoughts about child pornography enter my mind when I stand there with the camera.
I’m the geek of the family and of course we have a couple of digital cameras that we use on a daily basis. One very compact digital that’s always with us and one super duper SLR with a bag of pro lenses. Fortunately my wife started sorting the photos by month from the very beginning and we therefore have all photos in a nice order. And it’s a lot of photos. On a good month we can take 700 photos (!) but do throw many away. But it’s lovely to use them as a screen-saver, make large prints, or make a DVD and send to family and friends. Most of the photos involve our son and his activities. Lots of them are from the beach, bathtub, baby swim class, kiddie pool, or from the house. After reading the article I went back and took a closer look at our photos and realize that they are very innocent but some could certainly be taken as pervert photos by an uncertain and slightly paranoid employee at the photo lab. It’s Daniel and his friends naked or in swim-wear in the pool or building a castle on the beach. Or some photos of his first potty experience. When I snapped all those photos the last thing on my mind was potential legal problem. If photos of my half naked kid were illegal I would be in a lot of trouble.
The problem is of course that the people at the photo store are taught to report questionable photos. But what is a questionable photo? They don’t know the story behind the photos and I don’t blame them for being cautious. One factor that contributes to mistakes is probably the lack of educated employees and clear guidelines over what photos should be reported. Should a lab employee always error on the “safe side” and report a photo to the police even though it might have a perfectly normal explanation? That might mean lives ruined for many innocent people. Or should the lab be more restrictive and risk missing reporting photos from some pedophiles or sick individuals? It’s a tricky situation. In a perfect world I would like the lab to try to verify more of what’s going on and perhaps ask some questions before acting. But that might be asking too much and the education of the employees at Eckards etc. is usually not top notch. Besides, what photo lab would have the time to do this? I guess we are stuck with having questionable photos reported no matter what since it would be unbearable for anyone to miss reporting a pedophile. But can you imagine having your life ruined over a seemingly innocent vacation photo of your family swimming and hanging out around the campfire? It’s a scary but possible situation.
Oh my gosh. That article was so scary. Who hasn’t taken photos like that? And whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
Online photo sharing sites make this an even bigger issue. The pictures you share online can sometimes be viewed by anyone and that of course includes pedophiles and other perverts. It really makes you second guess what you share.
There’s a good thread discussing this problem over on Flickr.
http://flickr.com/groups/kids/discuss/33958/
Wow. Just Wow about the article.
I’ve never read/heard anything like. Hopefully it’s just a rare occurrence.
I am blown away by that article. What’s a parent to do? I at first thought that such a thing wouldn’t happen in such a Metropolitan area as San Francisco, where I live, but…am I just being naive? So, so scary. What a nightmare.
[…] I just finished reading Adventure Dad’s post at the Blogfathers called Innocent Pictures of the Children? He tells us of an article that talks about people taking innocent pictures of children while camping and the family was later charged criminally. It’s a great read, but I must say, I am a little perplexed at a system where some teenager in a local photo development place could actually call the police and report parents. How many times have you taken a picture of your child taking a bath, or those naked pictures on that bear skin rug? Genuine | 2:41 pm | Uncategorized « Stay On The Path and Never Stray […]
How frightening! It’s one thing to worry that some pervert will find something interesting in a photo I post online, but it’s another to be called a pervert like that, because of taking pictures of spontaneous childhood abandon to keep for the memories.
And the blurb about the woman investigated because of a photo of her breastfeeding? Whoever reported that had to be quite uptight. The thought that someone’s personal feelings on nudity (especially children, who are natural nudists) could cause an investigation of this sort is scary. And how screwed up that they had to go through this horror when it turns out it was dropped.
[…] I wrote a few lines on The Blogfathers about a very interesting article in Salon where a completely normal family gets accused of child pornography about developing some regular photos of a recent camping trip. Needless to say their lives are pretty much ruined. I find the read fascinating since I talk lots of photos of Daniel and never consider the risk of being charged criminally for some pictures of my son strolling half naked on the beach. Head on over and read the article. It's a frightening read but it sure taught me to double check the images I send for printing, no matter how innocent they may seem. Can you imagine being charged for child pornography after developing a print of your young child playing half naked on the beach or drying off at the campfire? […]
The article is frightening, but the article and your comments lean a lot on the photo lab people. This is not a high salary position, places like Eckerd Drugs (the one listed in the story) probably go through lots of these “techs” that develop pictures, so you are not going to professional train each one in the nuances of what is and isn’t pornography. And (now bear with me to the end) I would rather them err on the side of safety and report “questionable.” HOWEVER, the people it is reported to SHOULD be trained in these matters, and in a situation like this, the agency should not need a “way out” of the case, as much as recognize it as a photo lab tech being overly cautious and move on. End of story. THOSE are the people that should be able to be trained and to “know better.”
I understand that this is pretty much backlash from so many cases where Child Services seems to let things “fall through the cracks” but that doesn’t mean they need to prosecute and demean everybody in their path just to prove themselves.
Ok, first of all, if this was in a somewhat liberal country nobody would have thought about it. Second observe very closely where the cases came from: Georgie & Texas. Put 2 and 2 together and you will quickly understand why this happened.
But, of course, the article as such is frightening and should cause people who take candid pictures of their offspring while wearing very little think twice about if they should take them, or if they should turn them in at a place where they don’t know the lab technician or person who will develop the pictures.
Personally I find the stories mentioned as another example of how messed up some people are about their own bodies and a total symptom of repressive environments and what it can do to some people’s “fragile little minds” to quote Cartman. All through the article I got more and more upset with the child services and the police and if it were me I would probably have opened a counter case against their behaviour, or at least explored the possibility. Afterall, the only thing that hurts is hitting them where it hurts the most, in their wallet. And as the US system is built on case law winning such a suit would help loads of people in the future if they were truely wrongly accused.
With hopes they all have a great time,
/Lindus
[…] As the age of digital pictures is upon us, it has become far easier for pictures of your children to fall into the wrong hands. I came across this article about innocent pictures of our children on The Blogfathers. It is definately worth a look. […]