I enjoy reading Wired's Mr. Know-It-All column, I especially enjoyed this week's in particular this one related to babies:
I recently posted a photo on Facebook of my 4-month-old son taking a bath. My mom flipped; she said I was creating child porn. Is she overly paranoid?
Sounds like your mother has seen one too many episodes of To Catch a Predator. The legal test is for the depiction of "sexually explicit conduct" (including "lascivious exhibition" of genitalia). Neither the Feds nor Facebook care about a cute bath-time picture of your own kid. And it means a lot if Facebook is cool with it, because the company is notoriously prim—it has been known to delete images of breastfeeding. "We've carved out an exception in our policy to allow photos of infants posted by parents or other family members," says Simon Axten, a Facebook spokesperson.
Mom also needs to understand that Facebook can actually be more private than a beach or park—the photos can be viewed only by trusted friends, assuming you have the appropriate privacy settings. (You do, right?) Unless she has a blanket objection to her grandson appearing naked in public, including during emergency diaper changes, her anti-Facebook logic doesn't hold water.
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