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Yearbook Blacks Out Kids' Eyes for Fear of Porn Potential
Filed under: Opinions
Guess who, Mr. Child Pornographer? Credit: Daily Mail / Anorak News
Personally, I'd try to wake up. But at a school in England, the principal is very much awake and behind this whole thing. Apparently, she was so worried someone might cut out the kids' faces, paste them on child porn pictures and post them on the Internet -- yes, that's really her concern -- that she ordered the teachers to manually black out all the children' eyes.
Let's pause for a second to consider how lovely an illustration this is of what I call "Worst-First" thinking. That is, thinking up the worst, most perverse explanation for something first, instead of assuming a less dramatic, but far more likely, rationale.
We see this when moms glare at guys waving at their babies -- those men must be perverts! And when parents distrust males who want to teach kindergarten -- they must be creeps! And now we're seeing it with this principal, who issued a 17-page "photography policy," explaining that the Internet has "given rise to increased concerns that images will be misused and that a child's face or body could be used to represent matters wholly contrary to the wishes of their parents."
Yecch! The idea that a yearbook would be of interest to anyone other than the kids in it (and their parents), doesn't seem to have occurred to this woman, who also outlawed the taking of photos or videos at school plays. She's so worried about perverts, she doesn't realize how perverted her thought process has become. To her, all kiddie pix are one step away from kiddie porn.
Which brings us to the strange case in West Virginia, where a different sort of Worst-First thinking has swept Cabell County. There, a boy jumped off a swing and broke his arm. His family sued, won $20,000, and now the county is getting rid of all its swing sets.
Who did the jumping? Not the swing. But in our perverted justice system, the swing and its owner -- the county -- were somehow guilty. Which means officials can no longer think of swings as beloved playground equipment. They must think the Worst-First: Those things are dangerous liabilities.
Between our porn obsession and our litigiousness, it's hard to look at kids' lives and see anything but danger anymore. Can't take their pictures. Can't let them play. I guess they can still go home and look at their blacked-out eyes in the yearbook.
But then they won't be able to sleep.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 7)
11-30-2010 @ 3:12PM
Silver Fang said...That has to be the stupidest example of child protectionism I've read about.
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12-01-2010 @ 10:47AM
BTDT said...This principal needs professional help.
12-01-2010 @ 11:25AM
Angela said...Regarding the issue with the swing in West Virginia: Did the county's liability insurance company get into the act? If so, it would explain a lot.
11-30-2010 @ 4:49PM
TerryBogard said...If someone can photoshop heads onto other bodies who's to say they can't photoshop eyes onto faces?
Reply
11-30-2010 @ 5:39PM
maggie said...If this is the yearbook my kids got I think I'd demand my money back. What kid is going to want to look at pictures of their friends with big black marks over their faces? In ten or twenty years when they look back at the book (or their kids do) how will they know who the kids are?
This is disgusting
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12-01-2010 @ 9:19AM
Kaye said...Exactly Maggie. So many people are in full mode to sue someone. Why not ALL the parents that had purchased yearbooks get together and sue this principal and school for defacing their property!!! As far as the WV incident. I think it very right for the school to get rid of the swings, as I am sure that other children will also get hurt at one time or another from being on them. That was totally wrong. I sure hope that someone might get hurt (not that I would want anyone to get hurt) at these people's home and they get sued themselves.
12-01-2010 @ 2:21PM
JennyJen said...Maggie, you are exactly right! Besides, what are the chances some random person would have access to these yearbooks? The principals thought process truly has become perveted, as Skenazy had stated, because it would be the family & friends of the family of the children who would have access to these yearbooks, implying they would be the perps (or perverts). Very sad!
12-06-2010 @ 2:36PM
thesteadyhand said...Kaye!!
You don't take away swing sets because a kid gets hurt!!! Kids get hurt all the time!! That's part of being a kid. So you say, "let's take away the swings because potentially someone else can get hurt." Where does that end? Are you going to take your child's bike away also? No, if you're any kind of responsible parent, you EDUCATE your child to think and act appropriately!!! But, no matter how many safe guards you put in place, KIDS WILL GET HURT!! I fell out of a neighbor's tree once and broke my ankle. Should we cut down every tree in the neighborhood because I had an accident? Wake up!! Take responsibility, and have some damn sense!!
11-30-2010 @ 6:26PM
katepickle said...That is insane... both things!
Let's all just lock our kids up and never let them leave the house lest they do something insane like letting someone take their photo for a year book or swing on a swing....
Reply
12-01-2010 @ 6:21AM
Sharon said...horrible as it is that she did this what she was trying to prevent is also very real. What kind of a world do we have coming up on us?? This is what happens when we let this "MY RIGHTS' or the courts and lawyers throw "COMMON SENSE" out the window. A law gets struck down because some lawyer said it was against a persons "RIGHT" to lie about his military experience and use it to obtain money from VA....and so on.... where is my RIGHT as a honest, upstanding citizen to have the courts protect me from all this and all the cursing on the streets, all the obscene justers in public, COMMON SENSE needs to make a come back here and stop saying OH IT IS THEIR RIGHT.... You were informed enough to protect me from smoke in public buildings why do you find it so hard to take the word ILLEGAL for what it is and start enforcing it!!
Reply
12-01-2010 @ 7:42AM
jdo52tex said...Back when I was in school, a judge would never let a case like the swing set suit even be filed. Goes to show, that our court system has lost their backbones.
12-01-2010 @ 11:31AM
MikeC said...Sharon, relax! You missed the point of the article.. if you become obsessed with all those "liars, perverts and creeps" that must be out there lurking in the shadows .. so much that you can't function normally (like waving at a kid or in this case publishing a useful yearbook) youre as crazy as the principal.
12-01-2010 @ 1:52PM
michem55 said...Actually, Mike, I think Sharon hit the nail on the head. It is the court / legal system that let child perverts out (I remember one who had molested over 300 children) to wonder the streets. Although it may seem that this principle has gone crazy, it is the organic and natural end result of us not enforcing accountability --> Hold the criminals responsible and individuals responsible. If perverts were properly prosecuted for child porn, the principle wouldn't be acting crazy. If parents took responsibility for the child accidents, then the school would still have swing sets.
12-01-2010 @ 6:32AM
karmabottle said...I wish that there were a way to make foolish court cases like the one in VA turn back onto the people who sued. The parents of that child wanted money, but it is they who should be paying for their own child's decision. Their greed cost the community and taxpayers more than just dollars. What a perverted sense of "rights" that many of my fellow Americans have.
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12-01-2010 @ 10:51AM
cah said...Just a couple of quick points-Karma, it was West Virginia, and it is a separate state from Virginia. And, when we were growing up the most dangerous place for us was our home, our father was abusive BIG TIME! I was safe at school, and I am grateful the internet was not available for the sick SOB to do more peverse acts. Maybe the principal was abused and is just super sensitive, but this obviously is not the answer.
12-01-2010 @ 6:37AM
NHPB said...Trial lawyers claim they are only suing to "send a message" to those evil swing manufactures and make the world a better, safer place for idiots like little Tommy. Fees have nothing to do with it. It's all just an expensive load of crap. Injured..... someone must pay! And by golly hire a lawyer to find that someone and squeeeze every last ounce of humanity out of them.
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12-01-2010 @ 6:44AM
Kelley said...So rdiculous.....Not only in England...High School principle in Texas removed numourous pages of year book held up distribution of books that had been paid for by parents and students just to remove what he thought was unflaterring to himself and someone else ....absolutely nothing was done about damage to other persons property...semi book banning ,,,and everyone just let him get away with it...
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12-01-2010 @ 8:07AM
John said...The parents of the child that broke his arm should be countersued
for not teaching their child how to be safe.
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12-01-2010 @ 8:29AM
Heather said...While the blacked out eyes bothers me, the parents suing because their kid was BEING A KID angers me to the boiling point! DSS should take their kid away because they are obviously BAD parents who want to earn a living with bs lawsuits and never take responsibility for their choices, something they will pass on to their children. I am 39, and loved swings as a kid, and the point was to go as high as you could and jump from the damn thing. The kid who jumped the highest was cool, and the kids with CASTS were cool because you go to write stuff on it. Good grief. We need protection from IDIOTS.
12-01-2010 @ 7:13AM
oceanwaves1323 said...It might be a different case if the swing had broke and the parents sued for them to pay the bills but the kid jumped. It's getting to the point where you are going to get sued for sneezing on someone and giving them a cold. The court systems are so bogged down that the real cases that need to be heard cannot get into the courtrooms. This principal in England is a NUT CASE and she needs to make restitution to all the parents who bought these yearbooks or arrange to have them reprinted and passed out.
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