08 November 2006

I know, I know, you've heard it all before

Many people don't seem to have aprobelm putting pictures of their children on the net. I see them all the time on blogs I love to read. Crafters especially share their work with the kiddlings as models or enjoying the crafts made by mom. I think it's great that they have loving families and are proud of their kids.

Then there's me. Miss Paranoid. I blog anonymously. My husband and children are referred to by number or nicknames. You have only seen a few pictures of relatives of mine on my blogs. I tend to stay at a distance from full disclosure. It's not that I don't want you to get to know me, not that at all. Except being the kind of person I am - a realist - and knowing what horrors lie beyond my world, my pollyanna persona, will not be exposed to the evil creeps for their own benefit.

Why are you needing to know this now? Well, a good crafter I love, love , love, has had her childrens pictures on the net since she began blogging. I am not providing a link to her site for you because she has asked for a bit of privacy right now. However, I must share this incident with you. She recently had a reader, of her blog, email her with a horrible link. The reader had come across my blogging crafter friends' childrens picture on an inappropriate site. They had taken the pictures of her darling babies, innocent and trusting and wonderful and had turned them into a creepy thing for creeps to enjoy.

I read and have had said to me that it is not really something to worry about. But folks this is not a snopes story. This blogger is real, her children are real, and her blog, as it was, was taken down and her childrens pictures removed. She has started blogging under a new blog name and is letting people know that she is not in favor of picture stealing or copyright theft at all.

So call me Chicken Little if you wish. But as far as your innocent loves, they are being stalked by the worst of all stalkers. Predators that are only concerned with their own gratification and greed. Please heed my warning and act accordingly, and use your own heart to make your decisions about your children and their images.