12.27.2012

why there are no people on this blog

So. I need to get serious with you for a minute.

A couple of weeks ago I read this post on Not Martha, which included a link for how to see if your photos are being used on another site. More out of curiosity than anything else, I gave it a spin, and found -- on the first photo I tried -- that that photo of my kid had been posted to a child pornography site.

Bam.

Sick. Heartbroken. Angry. Guilty. Gut-wrenched. Give me a few more adjectives.

That night, I unpublished every single post from all 3 blogs I've written, unsure of whether I'd continue blogging at all. Ultimately I decided to keep at it, but photos of people -- and of my kids in particular -- have officially been uninvited. I love our crafty/mommy bloggy community, and have derived so much joy and satisfaction from being a part of it. But it's easy to forget that it isn't always just us reading those blog posts about the cute things our kids do, the funny poses they strike for the camera, or how pretty they looked last Sunday. When I originally posted the stolen photo, of course I wasn't thinking about it being interpreted as something sexual. But unfortunately, someone else did, and I'd like to punch him in the nads right about now. And then hand him over to my husband.

I hate paranoia. I don't hang out with paranoid people. I don't believe in hiding in a hole because someone might get hurt or sick. Germ-a-phobes in particular drive me nuts. But guess what? My 4 month-old baby had RSV a couple of weeks ago and nearly had to be hospitalized. Guess who's slathering all the kids and visitors in hand sanitizer now? (He's fine now.)

I'm not taking any more chances on this one. I'm not saying that everyone should make the same choice I have, but I do think this is something all us mommy bloggers should think long and hard about. Think about that photo you're going to post of your daughter making a coy face. Think about that photo of your kids in the tub, even if their private parts aren't in full view. We mommy bloggers think that's cute, but there really are psychopaths out there, looking for crap for their fellow psychopaths.

Our kids are too precious to let that kind of crap happen to them. Let's protect them. Let's protect each other. Honestly, I'm too lazy to go through all of old posts and remove every single kid photo before republishing, so I'm just starting over. Clean slate. And a new design, too! Click on over for a little look-see.

I appreciate you reading. I really do. Serious minute over. Hugs!

Eta 5/29/13: I decided to republish all my old posts. I disabled right-clicking on photos (a simple Google search will show you how to do this), which I hope will fix the problem. I plan to continue to monitor site use, occasionally checking to see if certain photos have been pirated. Fingers crossed.

6 comments:

Rae said...

oh Amanda!!! I'm so sorry. This makes me so angry. It sucks that people suck so much. ):

BIG HUGS TO YOU!!

Catskill Quilter said...

Oh, I am so sad that this happened! Good for you, you are "changing the game plan" to protect your precious kids. We will all still read and enjoy, and your mind will be more at peace. (Is there somewhere you can report this to police or???) Hang in there!

April said...

Oh wow, that's really creepy Amanda. I'm really sorry that happened! Now I'm freaked out about it. I'm glad your little guy is okay. RSV is scary.

Meg said...

Wow. That is so scary! You made me go check several of my photos on my blog. Nothing weird popped up, thank goodness. This is good food for thought though. I am sorry that happened to you!

Anna said...

Oh, Manda, that's so hard. I've struggled for years over whether or not to make my blog public for reasons like this. Reading this makes me realize, sadly, it's not just paranoia. I'm glad you found out so you could decide what to do about it. I'm really glad you're not going to quit blogging altogether, I love your blog.

The Thompsons said...

I've thought about this as well. I keep a close watch on the Traffic Sources to my blog and turned off the engine search to my blog, so that it can't be used as part of google search. I've checked multiple pictures and nothing's come up, but I would have done the same thing as you if I found that. Holy cow - that's scary!