My guess (and based on experience) is that she probably isn't that very beautiful, but I commend you as a friend for saying so. Only insecure people make those sort of posts.
I don't think I'd do that if I was mommy 'cause what will my kid think when s/he's older and knows his/her pictures are potentially all over the internet? It's not the same as showing paper pics from an album to your dinner guests, really.
Ah, that's a good point. Most of these pictures are quite harmless though - they're not embarrassing or bathing pictures, just the kids smiling and playing and maybe looking silly with a silly hat. But it's a good thing to keep in mind. I do have some friends who don't post their children's pics up because they're afraid of people stealing them and then photoshopping them into child-porn.
I was also thinking about those eating-faux-pas pictures; you've just smeared the food goo all over your face, parents think it's cute, post it on their wall, and ten years later it surfaces when you least expect it and embarrasses you in front of the whole class and that boy you had a crush on, but now he's too embarrassed to go out with "Gooface-Pooface, Gooface-Pooface!" Or something. I don't know, I'm paranoid about ruining my future kids' lives.
Well, I'd say this is one of those cases where it can't hurt to be a little careful loool the Gooface-Pooface thing can totally become a scene in a teenager drama novel!
I think you just summed up everything that we were all trying to say for two and a half pages. My Aunt does this a lot with her 2-year-old. And her 12-year-old. And really any child she can find.
To be fair, it's also disgraceful to argue with a 23-year-old (33, 43, 53…) like with someone you might argue with in a bar here on the writing forums -- which is not a bar -- and where your (meaning all of you, and me) words stick. The fact that you're 13 just makes it a bit more unsettling. However, reading what JJ wrote, I didn't even interpret it as an accusation, I just thought he pointed out how your post could be understood, but now I get it that people can read and interpret it differently.
It doesn't take much to see when you upset people, intentionally or not, and usually a simple apology or a surreptitious backtrack, heck, a good old fashioned clarification is usually good enough to put the conversation back on a civil track. I don't recall this happening, even though the case was presented by several people with many different tones. I'd suggest that the civility of this thread remained even tempered, never approaching a bar room argument. No bar I've ever been to anyway. Myself, I put JJ on Ignore; I just can't read that dreck anymore. And I don't consider myself the least bit hypocritical for anything I said or how I said it.
Just wait a few years. Everybody's baby/childhood pics will be all over the internet. Who knows? Maybe they'll all be photoshopped into child porn. And it will be a great big yawn. If it happens to everyone, it can't be embarrassing. Nobody is embarrassed by being naked if they're in a nudist colony.
Oh god. I'm so thankful my parents didn't have the internet and still don't know how to use it. I have some pretty embarrassing ACTUAL photos, I can only imagine what it would be like now. > < That aside, what do parents/to-be parents think of videos being posted on youtube of their children? I know they made millions off of VCR records ('AFV'), but now anyone can upload any clip of their child...and anyone can view it. Do think its cute? Creepy? Depends on the situation?
I think parents, and all people for matter, need to think twice about what they post. Kids have enough reasons to be rebellious as they grow. I know my daughter gets very sensitive if I talk fondly of earlier days, that, too me are wholly precious, but to her, embarrassing. Those images are downloaded, saved and distributed.
I have to believe that only a very small, sicko, percentage of the population participates in such an activity, so no, I doubt every child will be "photoshopped" in. If it was your kid, I can guarantee, it would not be anything close to a great big yawn. There is a mountain of difference between walking around nude in your house or at nudist camp, and child pornography. I am surprised you would try and assimilate the two, even if as a joke.
Relax. All I'm saying is that in the near future, the meaning we now attach to a "photograph" will disappear, because there will be no way of differentiating between a photo of something real and some photoshop artist's fantasy. That already happens to supermodels in magazine ads; I'm saying it will wind up happening to everybody. By that, I mean it will happen to a huge variety of randomly chosen people - whoever has a pic online will be subject to it. This won't just apply to porn, it'll apply to anything. You might see a picture of yourself as an Apollo astronaut walking on the moon, or as a follower of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. There are two ways of dealing with this: We can get all bent out of shape about it, or we can realize that these pictures mean absolutely nothing. We'll choose the second option because it's much easier and makes more sense. /threadjack
Thanks minstrel, yes, I see where you are coming from. I have been a photographer, as my vocation, for the past couple of decades. It's changed a lot in that time, but trust me, people still get plenty bent out of shape if they are even slightly slandered. Model releases were the size of business cards at one time, now they are a full 8.5x11 document, needing witnesses and enough information to make most people slightly edgy.
Yeah, with the bar thing I was referring to what Ed said. All I was saying was that we own our words here, and they can stay on the internet for a long time, so it's just a good idea to think twice before posting, especially if it contains something provocative (learned this the hard way when I talked back to a mod on another forum. In my defense, she was one of those people who thought the world population consists of one homogenous blob of likeminded white females. Pfft.) So now my possible future kid will be teased of not having appeared on FB as many times as his/her friends!
I know people get bent out of shape, and the slander issue will be a big one for a while yet. But there's a generation growing up now to whom it won't - can't - be such a big deal, because they were raised with it. We're in our fifties, and it's much more serious to us than I think it will be to our grandkids. I think that when it happens to everybody, no one will feel singled out and victimized by it. Maybe that's too relativistic, but I think it'll probably happen. People will be annoyed that they were "victimized," but they'll see that their boss has been, too, and their teachers, and their pastors, and the local police officers, and their Congress member. Down at the courthouse, the judge got it worse than the janitor. Either everyone marches angrily off in all directions looking for who's responsible, or everyone just shrugs and goes on with their lives. Thanks for understanding.
I can't wait till Molly is old enough to be embarrassed by our pictures of her - her older sister Niámh is already feeling it hehe but all her friends are in the same boat. It's like our generation of 40ish old parents are evil but as Minstrel says, because it happens to all or most kids now they don't give a crap - it's a 2 minute giggle and they seem to bond on it; well my 16 year old and her friends do anyway!
Something...is not working in your post. lol. And I'm going to ask something potentially rude, and if it is, I apologize... how do you say her older sister's name? Written it's very beautiful, but I have no idea how to say it. :/ I'm so American. lol.
Apparently I'm a dirty liar and it just didn't want to work that once? But I can't edit my post so... meh! Also, cutest baby ever. My boyfriend used to eat lemons as a baby. Just... straight. I have no idea how he did it. lol.
It's "as Gaelige" the Irish word for a female saint and Niámh (that's a foda over the a) is pronounced as 'Nee-ave' ave sounding like the ave in have. Thank you Your Highness! Obviously she takes after her mam ...and don't all agree at once
Now, how is Molly ever going to trust you to give her yummy food? My younger son was born skeptical. I've actually said, "This is chocolate! You like this!" and not been believed. (When I was telling the truth.)
You remembered! I don't think that I look like anyone in my family, but everybody else says that I look like my dad. Or my mom, depending on the lighting.
Next time that I see a baby, I'm gonna try. When I was younger, I could eat whole slices of lemon, and now I can't.
