- Share This Post
- Pin It
- 0
-
Sparkle (0)
I have always been of the mind that the exposure my family receives as a result of my blog is not nearly as dangerous as the exposure they receive as a result of just living life. I think the potential for predators to lurk at the park we go to often, hoping for a wayward child to fall into their hands, is more of a tangible threat than the possibility of some pedophile surfing mommyblogs looking for a child to stalk. So, I've posted my family photos on Facebook..on Myspace..on Flickr..and on my blog without batting an eyelash. But I've had something happen that has forced me to rethink my position.
To make a long story short, the Bing search engine has been listing a photograph of my 7yo daughter eating a s'more in the image results for extremely disturbing search terms. Terms that make it very clear either a current or potential predator of children is in search of fodder for his or her twisted urges. The photo was posted on Flickr and then on my blog back in May of 2008. There are no questionable tags associated with the image on Flickr, or the post it was placed in. I noticed it thanks to my Sitemeter referral listings, so it isn't that the image has been harvested and retagged or anything-it is the original photo, which when clicked, leads to my blog.
I have no idea how this is happening, and despite multiple attempts to reach someone at Bing to explain how this has happened, and how to stop it and prevent it from happening again, I have received not even an email or call to acknowledge my concern. In fact, the customer service rep Carol at Microsoft denied Bing even being a Microsoft product. I had to ask for her supervisor seven times before she would connect me. Her supervisor agreed to transfer me to the legal department. He transferred me to a fax line. I explained what was happening to no less than five people, and not one expressed the least bit of concern, much less an interest in helping me resolve the situation.
So, clearly, when a situation like this arises, you are on your own in handling it.
I didn't talk about what was happening publicly for some time, partly to give Bing a chance to address the issue, but even more so because I feel sick to my stomach when I think about someone using my child's image for those purposes, and I can't help but feel guilty because I published that image publicly. How much of this am I responsible for? How much of a right do I have to expect that the images I post will not be sought out in this way?
I'm an emotional person with a strong logical side, so I've spent weeks mulling this over and turning things around in my mind. The conclusion I have come up with is that I don't really have a right to feel any more or less safe from predators online than I feel when I am at the grocery store with my kids. The truth is that I don't know what is in the minds of the cashiers and bakers and meat managers. The difference is that with stats services like Sitemeter, I can take a peek into *why* a visitor is looking at my site, and in this case, my child. However, I do think I have a right to expect a search engine to keep completely unrelated and ILLEGAL search terms from leading to a photograph of my child. I also think I have the right to expect my legitimate concern to garner some kind of answer.
I am not sure if I will be changing my habits. This has definitely given me food for thought, and with recent events along similar lines such as the blogger whose child was posted for adoption on Craigslist, I think it is something we should all reconsider. I still feel that there is less danger from online predators than local ones...but knowing for sure there is a predator that has looked at my child's image in that way makes me very uneasy.
