Safety of Children's images.

[Gina]

I am saddened by a recent incident with a contact on Facebook which has turned out to be more than a copyright issue. Someone reported to Jessica that one of her watermarked images had been seen on another site. It turns out that the blog site was connected to Flikr and Slide and there were several sites this Vietnamese pedophile had put her work which were beautiful images of little boys used in the way they were never intended by the photographer or parents of the little boys.

Her name is Jessica Drossin and she is a member of the DPN Facebook Group - You can see her textures page under Jessica Drossin Textures if you wan't to see a commentary of what 'We' as photographers can achieve if we fight back.

It has lead me once again to question the way people display images of minors on the net. I've been told so many times how my watermarking on images spoils some aspect of the image - yes, of course it does but unless we make it as difficult as possible as responsible people, we MUST do what we can to stop our work ending up in the wrong hands.

I hope you can take part in this topic as we need all the help we can get.

Here's a great link to start ...

10 Ways to protect your images from being stolen

Gina x

[Geoff]

Re: Safety of Children's images.

Gina, I agree that it is wrong to take other peoples' images but, sadly, there is no fool proof way to prevent this happening. The link you posted gives several methods to protect images but all are easily overcome even by someone with little knowledge of computers.

I have a web site that shows samples of photos that I have restored or retouched. I have often seen my work on other peoples web sites as samples of their work! A few years ago this annoyed me a lot, but now I just email the sites asking to remove my photos and try not to worry about it as I know that any images can be stolen so it's no good worrying about something that I have no control over.

Geoff.

[Gina]

Re: Safety of Children's images.

Hi Geoff, I appreciate what you are saying but the images in question are being used by a pedophile. Have you got kids/grandchildren?

All I am asking for is some advice as to how we can help protect as much as we can from the predators. I realise also that the best way is not to put our images in the public domain in the first place.

Gina

[Josh Bear]

Re: Safety of Children's images.

Hi

Sorry to hear about stuff like this. I am afraid I can't offer a solution apart from keep pictures off the web. I took a decision about two or three years ago not to post as many pictures of my family as I was and I am pretty much down to zero now.

Occasionally I do post to a private gallery on Pbase and then give relatives and friends the password.

Best regards

Josh

[Stephen]

Re: Safety of Children's images.

Josh has beaten me to it. I was about to add that in the case of child photography, if you are concerned about images being stolen then don't post them. If you want to let certain people see them, a client for example, then use a password protected site. It is in fact possible to do this on DPNow.

Its also worth mentioning that in the past Pol has warned some members about showing pics of their kids, in the end though its down to individuals what they do

[Pol]

Re: Safety of Children's images.

Hi Geoff, I appreciate what you are saying but the images in question are being used by a pedophile. Have you got kids/grandchildren?

All I am asking for is some advice as to how we can help protect as much as we can from the predators. I realise also that the best way is not to put our images in the public domain in the first place.

Gina

Gina,

The sad fact is that paedophiles are all over the place and they can and will take whatever they want from online. There's absolutely nothing you can do to protect your images online other than to upload them to a password protected web page.

Even hidden watermarks such as a Digimark can be overcome by those sickos. They simply grab screenshots so that's another reason to use password protected pages - so they don't get the chance to see the picci in the first place.

Here's something to bear in mind though, which helps to deal with things a little better in your own mind. The child in your particular picture was NOT abused, even though the photo was stolen and manipulated by some sicko. On that occasion It was the picture that was abused NOT the child.


Pol

[Gina]

Re: Safety of Children's images.

Thank you all. It's a very sick World we live in. I think password protected sites are the way to go. I've stripped my own site down to bare bones whilst I figure our what to do next but thank you all for your input.

Gina x

[ash]

Re: Safety of Children's images.

Very sad and sick individuals! Im not saying I was not aware of this issue on the net, but more can be done with internet forums administration in general. Ive always been against joe bloggs from nowhere being able to log on to this forum, you only have to register if you want to post, well thats not really good enough as what peodofile wants to post pics or comment? Ok there may be peodophiles among us, we will never no but I swear to god if there is then Ill hunt you down.
If you have nothing to hide then you can register for the forum, if you don't register then you dont see the forum! simple as! I no this would not be a 100% foolproof method but it would help.
Its sad that these dick heads have to spoil it for everyone else, and after reminding me of this issue I won't be posting anymore shots of my kids!
I appreciate we are not going to stop this going on totally but to make it as hard as possible for these scumbags makes it a mission in itself.
I was having a good sunday untill I saw this post, ohh well life goes on!
Thanks for reminding us gina!
Ash.

[Guest]

Re: Safety of Children's images.

then use a password protected site. It is in fact possible to do this on DPNow.

Can you explain how one can password protect images on DPNow Forum. ?

[Stephen]

Re: Safety of Children's images.

Can you explain how one can password protect images on DPNow Forum. ?

Dennis, infact it is not so much a case of having a password as making your albums Private so they cannot be seen by others.

In the Gallery click on My Albums, then in the new window is an option to create a new album, click on this and you will see the option to make it Private. Others will not be able to see the contents, though you could still use them on the forums.

I must also add, for the sake of transparency, that they can be seen by Admin staff and we had a situation once when one was used accidentally in POTD, which did not go down too well.

[ash]

Re: Safety of Children's images.

Ok makes sense, how do you put pictures already posted into an album?

[Stephen]

Re: Safety of Children's images.

Ok makes sense, how do you put pictures already posted into an album?

Select your photo, then in the top right of the photo window is a down arrow which opens up a menu with Edit Photo in it. This will open a new window which allows you to put it in a gallery of your choice. It is also possible to delete a photo here too.

Deleting photos is not generally encouraged however as it leaves forum threads incomplete, which can be extremely annoying to other members.

[Pops]

Re: Safety of Children's images.

Thankfully I no longer have this problem as mine are all grown up now. When we look through our old photo albums though I never fail to feel sad that yesteryears photographs of the kids would today be considered targets for these sicko's.
Pics at bathtime, playing outside in a paddling pool etc etc. Many of these old pics could do with some modern editing but I dare not even scan them to my own computer.

[magicaxeman]

Re: Safety of Children's images.

Hi Geoff, I appreciate what you are saying but the images in question are being used by a pedophile. Have you got kids/grandchildren?

All I am asking for is some advice as to how we can help protect as much as we can from the predators. I realise also that the best way is not to put our images in the public domain in the first place.

Gina

There really is no way save not posting them to the net, theres just no way around it I'm afraid, and yes it does obviously concern us all.

Having said that I would not let it impact your site, doing so is just introducing a restriction to YOUR life in order to combat the issue.

Also most images I would imagine (I only experience of what I have seen happen with adult sites) are used for the cover pages, and not content, such images are it seems routinely harvested by people to use for various sites, one of my friends in fact suddenly found out that she was a star on one as she appeared on its coverpage (fully clothed).

The main thing to do is if you encounter any site or advertisment for such a site carrying childrens images, is to report it to the CEOP or the internet watch foundation so they can get it shut down, removed and those running it investigated.

Thank you all. It's a very sick World we live in. I think password protected sites are the way to go. I've stripped my own site down to bare bones whilst I figure our what to do next but thank you all for your input.

Gina x

Sadly its no worse than it ever has been, it was all shut behind closed doors until the advent of the internet, all thats happened really is that we are all more aware of the issue now.

[Gina]

Re: Safety of Children's images.

Thanks for your input on this subject, as long as people are more aware of this, it's all that I can hope for and I agree with you about letting it impact on my site. I've worked hard and long to get to the stage I am now at with imagery and I want it to be seen. I do watermark work that I put in the public domain though, much to the annoyance of some

Gina