What's So Dirty About Kiddie Pictures?

If I'm out in public, people have the right to photograph and record me, even without my consent. Parents have absolutely no business telling people that they can't photograph kids out in public.

As for the photog at the mall, he is technically on private property, so could be arrested for photographing if, and only if, a mall security guard told him to stop.

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I just got through signing a bunch of permission slips to allow my son's photo to be displayed at various places connected with his school (brochures, newspaper articles, even the classroom bulletin board). I don't really understand the photo fear, but I personally know several moms who have it. Of course, I'm probably not the best person to comment. Where we live, Chinese tourists often ask to snap pictures of themselves with my kids. It threw me for a loop the first time it happened, but now I just go with the flow and let them do it. And, my daughter is quite a ham, so she enjoys it.

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I find it ironic that as fear increasingly prohibits the private photography of children, it will be accompanied by ever more intrusive and ubiquitous surveillance of children ''for their safety'.

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As a teacher, I understand the restrictions on child photos to be not related to pornography, but to privacy. Think of the amount of child abductions that occur in the world today - and the number of custody battles, children being abused by people they know, internet predators, etc. The bottom line is - a photo of a face may one day somehow become attached to a name and a place...which makes that child a sitting duck. I know I work hard to use the safety tips I've been taught to protect photos of my students from becoming a risk to them, but not everyone is as informed of best practices, especially regarding the posting of children's photos on the internet (class blogs, school websites, etc.). As a mother, I have little tangible evidence to fear this will happen in my world. But, how many of the mothers of abducted/abused children sit around and think, "Yeah...that's probably gonna happen to me and my child one day..."

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As a parent, I am one of THOSE who does not allow photographs of her children in certain contexts. There's a person in their lives who, given the chance, WILL take them without permission. I fear that if they are on websites promoting their activities she will then know which they frequent - and she DOES look for them. Otherwise I wouldn't mind at all.

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I think this whole topic is borderline ridiculous! It's called basic common sense people, and if you ask me, anybody who's actually paranoid about taking innocent family pictures of their own children should seek some professional counseling. My wife and I have been clicking the memories of our 5 kids away since day one and yeah, they're wearing their birthday suits in some of them and those ones along with all the others are some of our most treasured belongings...Don't ever let a few half baked social dictators rob you and your family of beautiful memories!

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