This article posted by the New York Times covers the topic of Internet safety involving pictures. Focused mostly on children, this article asks parents their opinions of posting pictures of their children young children and the safety threat this poses. One mother’s story involved her Flickr account. Jessica Gwozdz, a professional photographer, posted pictures on a Flickr account of her family; with the intention of viewing from her work clients and other family members. She later found out that her 4-year-old daughters image was being used on a social networking site in Brazil. Her daughter was given a fake name along with other false information. This instance is an argument that fuels many parents dislike for the Internet as a means for posting pictures. On discussion sites for mothers such as urbanbaby.com and momversation.com, mother’s posts generally favor not posting picture of their children. Some people argue that posting pictures online is another means for pedophiles to track children. In opposition to this, the Crimes Against Children Research Center, says that children’s pictures on the Internet won’t lead to more abductions. A safety precaution that some mother’s are taking is to watermark all pictures with the websites URL.
This article is important because we discussed in class how web 2.0 can be a negative thing. Although UGC allows the internet to expand, these same users can also be affected negatively by adding too much personal information to websites. It is important for all users to recognize all the potential dangers the Internet and public sites create. Web 2.0 is rapidly developing and we have never experienced anything like it before, so now we have to research and test it out to find what is safe or unsafe. I personally liked this article because I think it is important for college students to also be cautious when posting pictures to sites such as facebook. Facebook reserves the right to use anything you post.
