# Pictures. Young Kids. Pedophiles.



## RMThompson

Today I recieved a disturbing email on my flickr account. Here is an excerpt:



> This morning when I logged onto Flickr I noticed someone had faved several of my daughter's pics. I immediately had a weird feeling and checked out the person's profile. Nothing. Then I checked the person's pics. No pics. Next I decided to check their favorites. FOUR pages of nothing but little girls, one of them your little girl or a little girl you know.


 
So, after doing my own searching, I found that yes... someone has created a profile on flickr, and has four pages of nothing but little girls, under the age of 12 seemingly, some much much younger.

The worst part is not that they are just little girls, but that in MANY of the photographs the girls were in underwear, bathing, or in bathing suits. The pictures of them seperatly were innocent enough, most likely parents capturing some of the sillier moments in their children's life.

However, seeing them together like that made my stomach churn. The picture I had posted was my daughter in a bathing suit, with a flower in her hair. There was nothing revealing about it, but there it was stuck up with all these other pictures.... and I got sick looking at it all.

Immediatly, I deleted the picture, and I blocked the contact... but it's been bugging me - should I do more? Is there anything more TO do? I mean, it is PEREFECTLY legal for this person to make favorites of whatever he wants. Even if we see a potential problematic pattern in the pictures, can we jump to the needed conclusion to REPORT him? 

What would you do?


----------



## HASHASHIN

make a fake account as a kid, and lure him into a trap to get him arrested "to catch a predator" style


----------



## ashadiow

Contact Flickr.  Period.  That isn't right.


----------



## jols

not sure this would be against the law.

but its odd and i would contact flickr and inform them.

and keep your pics private


----------



## Alex_B

it is not against the law. if these are jst favourites of images. so what. if he did not breach any copyright or whatever, then it is not illegal.

of course it is disturbing, and he has probably a twisted mind (be it pedophile or just crazy for cuteness), he might be dangerous, and probably needs help. but there is not much you can do about it.

but here you can see, why I never ever post images of family (young or old), or anything really showing my private life.


just too many stalkers and other strange people around, and if you expose yourself on the net, this is your own risk you take, but if you expose others, in particular the weak, well, then you have quite a responsibility there on your shoulders.


----------



## jols

just deleted all pics of kids ff my flickr and my website.

the internet is great but can be very bad


----------



## RMThompson

Alex_B said:


> just too many stalkers and other strange people around, and if you expose yourself on the net, this is your own risk you take, but if you expose others, in particular the weak, well, then you have quite a responsibility there on your shoulders.


 
Hence me deleting my kids pics.


----------



## RyanLilly

I try not to post much about my personal life or photos on the internet, and if I do post some photos to show on this site or whatnot, I usually remove them after a brief period of time.

If you want to share family pics, try a site that requires a password so only your friends and family can view them.


----------



## JIP

For me it is the same as others have said, you really need to limit those kind of pictures on the web.  I have seen the kind of things peole do with th images they skim from Flikr or the like and if you could see that you would never put an imae of your daughter online again.  Personally, if I want someone to see a picture of mine I will email it to them because if you want any kind of privacy keep it off the web.


----------



## Mike_E

RM, You hold the copyright to the photo on his page, do you not?

Start with the web master of flicker and go from there.  Copyright infringement and whatever else you can come up with.

If nobody gripes then nobody cares and then "they" can do whatever "they" want.


----------



## TheOtherBob

Mike_E said:


> RM, You hold the copyright to the photo on his page, do you not?
> 
> Start with the web master of flicker and go from there. Copyright infringement and whatever else you can come up with.


 
Favoriting is much like bookmarking a website - the person hasn't taken, moved, or otherwise used the picture, they've just added its location to a list of pictures that they can revisit easily. So there's no possible copyright infringement here. (Which is good - otherwise the whole Flickr community would be in trouble.) 

Now, if the person has made some other use of the photo outside of Flickr, that could be different, of course.


----------



## Mike_E

Oh, sounds a bit free to me.

Obviously I never got around to using it.

Maybe NBC would like to know.


----------



## Battou

Contact Flickr. That is one of many behavioral patterns that is a monitored by law officials trying to locate track child predators. They should know who to get a hold of and get the information to for investigating.


----------



## Peanuts

Yes do contact Flickr.

Whenever any favourites one of my photos I check their profile, pictures, and favouties.  I wouldn't doubt if I have blocked at least a dozen people.


----------



## Garbz

There's not a lot that can be done. If the photos are of postable nature then they are viewable. 

There are plenty of sites out there that trade these types of pictures. Everyone including federal police know about it and yet the paedophiles just laugh in their faces knowing that it's perfectly legal. Is sickening.


----------



## table1349

RMThompson said:


> Today I recieved a disturbing email on my flickr account. Here is an excerpt:
> 
> 
> 
> So, after doing my own searching, I found that yes... someone has created a profile on flickr, and has four pages of nothing but little girls, under the age of 12 seemingly, some much much younger.
> 
> The worst part is not that they are just little girls, but that in MANY of the photographs the girls were in underwear, bathing, or in bathing suits. The pictures of them seperatly were innocent enough, most likely parents capturing some of the sillier moments in their children's life.
> 
> However, seeing them together like that made my stomach churn. The picture I had posted was my daughter in a bathing suit, with a flower in her hair. There was nothing revealing about it, but there it was stuck up with all these other pictures.... and I got sick looking at it all.
> 
> Immediatly, I deleted the picture, and I blocked the contact... but it's been bugging me - should I do more? Is there anything more TO do? I mean, it is PEREFECTLY legal for this person to make favorites of whatever he wants. Even if we see a potential problematic pattern in the pictures, can we jump to the needed conclusion to REPORT him?
> 
> What would you do?



I don't mean to side track the issue or make light of the situation that you found your photos in.  I more than understand how things like this can be of a grave concern.   I would however ask, why did you post them that way in the first place.  I too have a Flicker account that has well over 2500 pics posted just the last four months.  However, you nor anyone one this board can see any of my photos, nor can you find them through a search.  

For $25 a year I have a pro account that allows me to secure all of my photos.  Only those that I invite get to see them.  The only people that I invite are the subjects of the photos. (Lots of sports stuff) their families, the athletic department for the collage I shoot at and select faculty.  Those that have a true interest in the photos and the people involved in them.  

I am amazed at the mass amount of photographers these days that post their pictures up on sites like Flicker, Smug mug, Image shack etc for the entire world to see.  They would never walk down the street with a photo album in their hands and just stop random people walking by to show them the photos.  Nor would people think of just leaving it lying on the sidewalk for anyone to just pick up. 

To me it is no different than these Face Book and My Space accounts.  I am always amazed when someone comes tom my place of work looking for employment and is in total shock when they get turned down for a job after we google them and found their My Space site with the pictures of them totally S#*%% faced, half naked hanging from a street sign on Main street with a joint in their mouth, and a giant plastic penis sticking out of their pants, and they can't figure out why we don't feel like they fit our needs or will be a good representation for us.  

I don't mean this as a lecture, it is not intended to be so. I intend it to be some food for thought perhaps.  I understand why most celebrity's guard the privacy of their children so much.  I wish more photographers would consider all of the aspects of posting their pictures for the whole world to see before they did so. For a few $$ a year and a few minutes time they could provide those same photos for those that really have a reason to see them.  Grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, close friends, work associates etc. to whom those photos would really matter.  Then we wouldn't see the proliferation of posts with these questions or the ever present, someone stole my picture, what can I do, questions.  

While I am proud of my photos, I am more concerned for the privacy of my subjects than showing them off.  Unfortunately in this world there are those that think nothing of others and only of what they can gain by any means, legal or illegal, harmful or not.  They are the scum of the earth, but we are stuck with them.  I just try not to feed the scum.  That's just me, and my 2cents worth.


----------



## AlexParlett

Unfortunately due to the ToCs and the Creative Commons license that flikr use, he is perfectly acceptable in favouriting your daughters picture, and the rest of the pictures. Its why there is such a problem with copyright infringement and fliker. Flicker cant actually do anything to stop him, i would suggest blocking him and keeping any personal pictures private.


----------



## RMThompson

gryphonslair99 said:


> I don't mean to side track the issue or make light of the situation that you found your photos in. I more than understand how things like this can be of a grave concern. I would however ask, why did you post them that way in the first place. I too have a Flicker account that has well over 2500 pics posted just the last four months. However, you nor anyone one this board can see any of my photos, nor can you find them through a search.
> 
> For $25 a year I have a pro account that allows me to secure all of my photos. Only those that I invite get to see them. The only people that I invite are the subjects of the photos. (Lots of sports stuff) their families, the athletic department for the collage I shoot at and select faculty. Those that have a true interest in the photos and the people involved in them.
> 
> I am amazed at the mass amount of photographers these days that post their pictures up on sites like Flicker, Smug mug, Image shack etc for the entire world to see. They would never walk down the street with a photo album in their hands and just stop random people walking by to show them the photos. Nor would people think of just leaving it lying on the sidewalk for anyone to just pick up.
> 
> To me it is no different than these Face Book and My Space accounts. I am always amazed when someone comes tom my place of work looking for employment and is in total shock when they get turned down for a job after we google them and found their My Space site with the pictures of them totally S#*%% faced, half naked hanging from a street sign on Main street with a joint in their mouth, and a giant plastic penis sticking out of their pants, and they can't figure out why we don't feel like they fit our needs or will be a good representation for us.
> 
> I don't mean this as a lecture, it is not intended to be so. I intend it to be some food for thought perhaps. I understand why most celebrity's guard the privacy of their children so much. I wish more photographers would consider all of the aspects of posting their pictures for the whole world to see before they did so. For a few $$ a year and a few minutes time they could provide those same photos for those that really have a reason to see them. Grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, close friends, work associates etc. to whom those photos would really matter. Then we wouldn't see the proliferation of posts with these questions or the ever present, someone stole my picture, what can I do, questions.
> 
> While I am proud of my photos, I am more concerned for the privacy of my subjects than showing them off. Unfortunately in this world there are those that think nothing of others and only of what they can gain by any means, legal or illegal, harmful or not. They are the scum of the earth, but we are stuck with them. I just try not to feed the scum. That's just me, and my 2cents worth.


 
First of all, don't pretend to know what the picture contained, and therefore portray that I was showing something other than a professional photograph. My flickr is used to show people a gallery of my work, especially with my spotty website in the past. When a possible client wants to see my work, I show them my flickr.

The photo in question was a professional picture taken of my daughter, by myself. It wasn't a candid shot of my family, which I wouldn't have posted.

You are right, perhaps I was wrong in showing my daughter publically, but Ive done so in the past with no problem. I've learned my lesson, and the picture is down.

Don't come on here and lecture you or me about how damn smart you are not to share your private photos, or how you catch people getting drunk blahblahblah. Great your smug, your arrogant, and your SO much better than everyone else.

Personally, unless someone was doing something ILLEGAL on their Myspace, I see no reason to hold it against them. You dont drink? You think you can test sobriety from a photograph? I could show you pictures of myself having fun at a party that you would say I was drunk, but youd be surprised to find out - I hadn't had a single drink.

SO quit pretending to have all the answers, and stop being so smug! And by the way, ANY level of member can privatize photos, I have some private photos that only family can see as well.


----------



## craig

This is always a touchy subject. Personally and with all due respect; the sad state of affairs at Flickr is due to careless photographers. We have to use secure sites and practices as opposed to throwing our work out there. If one of my clients had to browse Flickr they would not be my clients for long. There are more professional alternatives. 

Of course contact Flickr. Keep in mind that hate can kill creativity. What if homeboy was trying to figure out children poses or skin tones or a million other scenarios. Now more then ever we have to start understanding and learning as opposed to pointing the finger. 

Love & Bass


----------



## am_photoer

What i am wondering, because i don't know flickr too well, but doesn't the person need to run a search for a particular word (in this case daughter blah blah blah) in the title or description?

Sooo my point is that couldn't you just leave your images (private/revealing) un described and therefore unsearchable? and just be hidden from strangers doing searches?


----------



## am_photoer

There is 'danger' as well with candid photos, because they reveal location.  Especially when someone does a series of otherwise innocent things:

1- on their account says what city they live in.
2- have a candid photo of their child at their school

... that is it.  With that they can search for and find the school, very easy and because kids go to school for eight months a year it will not be hard to find the 'target'.


----------

