Dammit, Think!

I am deeply, deeply disturbed by how careless people and especially parents are with the internet. I think perhaps it is largely an older generation that does not understand the implications of posting pictures of their half-dressed or almost naked children on blogs, on picture hosts like Picasa, or even on stupid social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. They do not realize that these websites do not have their best interest in mind. In order to keep your information private, you must regularly update your settings (especially on Facebook, since they are always changing, damn conniving jerks) and make sure that you don't have sensitive pictures out there for ALL TO SEE!

Ugh.

I say this, I rant, because I stumbled across some disturbingly accessible pictures of little children in their underwear today. Am I some sort of creepy pedophile, you ask? Hell no. I remembered this hot Calvin Klein model that I used to love when I was a teenager and thought I would try to figure out what his name was. Yeah, get over it. He was hot, I am an adult, and I can look him up if I wanna. (His name is Travis Fimmel, BTW. Check that out if you like. It's nice.) So, I google "calvin klein underwear model". Within the first ten image results was a picture of a little boy, couldn't be older than four years old, posing innocently in his underwear. Hosted online for all to see. I was so creeped out. And there are so many reasons why....

What disturbs me is that there ARE a lot of creepy pedophiles out there. I am not sure the technical workings of Google's search engine. I think mostly they search for the key words you choose on a website. I hope to God that they don't display the results based on popularity among searches, but they may. Regardless, the creepiness remains. I checked out the site that this picture of this poor little boy was hosted on. It was Picasa, of course. Dudes, you gotta know that Picasa is a bad program. I think you can change the settings to make it more private, but if you read the privacy agreement, it basically takes away a lot of your rights to your own pictures. They even make you agree to allow Google to use your own pictures in the future. (This was true when I checked it out less than a year ago. And many other programs are quite similar.) BUT, the whole freakin' sad thing about this is that the mother of this little boy had posted tons and tons and TONS of pictures of her family and children on her web albums, along with some underwear pics of her kids, her LOCATION, names, places, dates, etc. etc. etc. Sure, she may want to share pictures online with friends and family, but there are better and more private ways to do so! I want to say she alone was foolhardy enough to do this, but it's not true. The carelessness of so many parents today is DAMNABLE! And THEN....

I googled another phrase, really close to the first (can't remember, but it had "underwear model" in it) and what comes up this time, you ask?! A little girl, a toddler, in her underwear. Within the first ten freakin' image results. SO. This little girl's mommy has the notion to post their life story on a blog. That is searchable. With their lives, loads of pictures, their LOCATION, names, places, dates, etc. etc. etc. I want to vomit. Blogger is customizable! You can make it unsearchable by google! And you damn well better if you are going to post ANY pictures of your children online. Oh my God. I am so mad right now.

Breath.

Okay, so after I freaked out for a minute, I decided that I had to do something. I went so far as to make a fake account with Picasa, under a fake e-mail with yahoo, just so I could post a damn comment on this woman's picture telling her she needed to be more careful. I was tactful, I was helpful about explaining her options, and I even managed to maintain my cool. It was easier to post a comment on the little girl's picture on blogger, since the other mom had no privacy controls up even for commenting. I gave them both a similar message about upping their privacy and possibly renaming their accounts so previous stalkers (seriously, they probably had a million) could not find their new sites.

And afterwards I just.... I felt so.... helpless, fruitless, and overwhelmed. There are so many more out there just like that. People on blogger who are too ignorant and too careless to know that they can get in their own settings and make like a little safer for themselves and their families. I hate to think it, but this is how children get stolen and are never seen again. This is how members of NAMBLA find pictures, like free f-ing candy, for their personal and group use. This is how you hand your children to pedophiles without a fight. How the hell can we ever make sure that parents know the serious and real effect of their actions? There are just too many.

I was thinking maybe I would send out a modified version of this post in a forward. I get so many stupid, f-ing, useless, and often totally wrong forwards all the time. The least we could do is circulate something that may actually edify half the population. What do you guys think? If even a few people forward it....

There are just so many better ways to share pictures online. At the very least people can just e-mail them to friends and loved ones. If they want a site for hosting pics, use Kodak.com and send out invites only to those you want to view them. It even comes with a buying option so Grandma can do it easily! And for the sake of your children, if you must post them, make your privacy settings on EVERY sight including social networking sites very, very tight. Only let f&f know about your blog. And seriously, don't put compromising pictures of them online. AT ALL.

Shit.