bloggy

So a few weeks ago, a friend of mine on Twitter DM’d me to let me know that she had seen a picture of Emma on a tumblr blog.

Now, going into this whole situation, I didn’t realize that tumblr was basically a place where you can “like” stuff that you find online, and it posts to your tumblr account.

Having said that, I don’t care. I don’t want pictures of my daughter ANYWHERE other than on THIS BLOG unless I have given SPECIFIC PERMISSION. Period.

I have it posted on my blog, people.

So when I found a picture of my 2.5 year old (cute as she may be) on a blog with a background of someone scraping up cocaine … well, I was not thrilled.

Shortly after I posted a screenshot on Flickr, the background was changed, but I was still extremely upset.

I just don’t get it. If you like a picture that someone has posted, fine. But a picture of a CHILD on a blog with this type of content is unacceptable.

After a little researching, I found that the picture was originally posted on a tumblr blog called “we heart it” and was then re-blogged to over a hundred other blogs. I don’t know what to think about that. Yes, the blog linked back to here, and that’s cool. But still. It’s my daughter.

I don’t really know where to draw the line.

Ken isn’t bothered by this in the least, but it’s my baby girl. Yes, I made the choice to share pictures of her publicly, but I guess I was just naive about how fast a simple picture can spread around the internet. And frankly, I’m weirded out that a LOT of people are looking at pictures of my kid and re-blogging them all over the place. Especially when I’ve found blogs where people have posted pictures of Emma as if she were their own child.

Plus, I have to think of Emma when she’s 16 – will she want to find random photos of herself on random websites?

Since then, I’ve gone “friends and family” on Flickr with pictures of Emma (so you have to be listed as a friend to see any images of her) but it’s such a drain, because I’m currently doing a Project 365 and would like to be able to post a picture of her here and there, ya know?

But then the picture that was found on that awful background was taken from this blog.

So now what?

Add watermarks to all of my images? I do that now, but I can’t go back through the plethora of posts and add watermarks to all of those. Delete all images of Emma on my blog? Ugh. Go private? Double ugh.

Put my fingers in my ears and “la-la-la” my way through it?

I don’t know. I’m gun-shy about posting pictures of her, now. I just don’t like seeing pictures of her in other places. Is that MY problem? Am I naive in thinking that if I post public pictures of her, no one will take them or use them in other places?

The funny thing about all of this is that I am not considered a “popular blogger.” I don’t get asked to speak at conferences or do product reviews or go places for free. I don’t know how many followers I have right now, I don’t know what my stats are (nor do I care), the only reason I even have ads is because my husband makes me, and I write for me … with the exception of the occasional tutorial post for those who were me a couple of years ago.

So how in the howdy doo are these people even finding me?

This is not a new subject for me, nor will this be the last time I post about it.

broken images are pictures of Emma that I have since made ‘private’ on Flickr

As usual, I guess I just need to make sure that I’m comfortable with the images posted here to ensure my daughter’s safety and comfort level – both now and in the future.

{ 19 comments }

I can’t believe I missed delurking day!! And the bad thing is that things have been so crazy around here lately, I missed actually delurking on other blogs, as well.

Although, to be honest, I try to post occasional replies on blogs that I read regularly.

Anyway, even though it’s not “delurking day” or anything, please feel free to delurk yourself and post a comment here. I’d love to hear from readers out there that I didn’t know I had!

xo

{ 25 comments }