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That night, I unpublished every single post from all 3 blogs I've written, unsure of whether I'd continue blogging at all.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.