Moms, the recent Crawler Bot post is the biggest reason you shouldn't post pictures of your children on this or any other public internet forum

[kalynnken]

Today I woke up to this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Mommit/comments/l6vsvt/best_mommit_images_on_pholder_mommit

A post by a user with no other activity in their history advertising the best mommit pictures on some photo sharing site. It's very likely a crawler bot. For those who don't know, a crawler bot "crawls" on an internet forum, automatically downloads pictures there, and rehosts them elsewhere. I know this because I'm a trans mom and there are a lot of said bots that reupload them to hate sites built specifically to mock trans people (or worse).

And it's not harmless. You have little to no legal rights to a photo posted on Reddit. Imagine being out and about and you see your LO's image being used to hock a political belief you find repulsive just because the organization needed a cute little picture and found a free one online. Give a listen to this episode of the Reply All podcast about a guy who's blog about the death of his wife was picked up by a clickbait site and now he can't just Google stuff without being reminded of it.

Edit: Alright this one is going to be more controversial but I'm going to say it. Your child should have a right to privacy. Even if uploading entire albums online were 100% safe, you still shouldn't do it b/c until they're older they can't consent to pics being up online. You have no idea how they might view their image in the future, how their image might be used in the future, or how they might not want people to see their baby pics. We all cringe at the idea of our parents sitting our SOs down to look at baby pictures but so many people don't bat an eye at putting photos online for thousands to see that their future classmates or employers or anyone else could easily find.

 

[tentmaker17]

@kalynnken I saw that as well and immediately thought it was creepy.

Also I'm sorry hateful people would do that to your child(or anyone), it's sad that we have to go to such lengths to protect ourselves and our children, and that some people aren't aware or don't care that awful people will take advantage.

Sigh sometimes I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

 

[dasiebe]

@kalynnken I saw a similar post, same title but different kid. It’s absolutely terrifying to think that pictures of our kids are being farmed. Don’t post your kids pics, folks!

 

[jics]

@dasiebe I’m one of the rare people who doesn’t post anything photo-wise anywhere of my kids. I get a lot of gruff from “friends” about it but I share the photos via text with people who actually are involved in my kids lives... so... it’s fair.

Don’t post about your kids with ultra identifying information, and don’t post photos of your kids.

 

[ilmc]

@jics I’m the same. My kids don’t go up on social media. I really hate first day of school posts in particular. People give out so much information! The child’s name, school age, class, teacher. In the UK kids wear uniform, so it’s easy to figure out which school they go to. Even worse are the ones who fill out blackboards with their child’s favourite hobbies and interests. The internet doesn’t need to know these things! Kids are trusting and will go along with things much more easily if a stranger knows their favourite song or food.

 

[len97010]

@jics Same. We do not post any pics of our kids online and I have threatened family members with legal action if they do so against my wishes.

 

[felipetortella]

@jics For sure. Your kid’s birth weight and length and time are interesting factoids for grandma but people you don’t know don’t need it.

 

[anilo]

@jics 100% agree with this.

 

[beastnate123]

@kalynnken I always thought it was weird that people would do that, especially on Reddit where everything is supposed to be anonymous. What if someone sees that picture of your kid and knows it's your kid and now you just outed yourself and your account. What's the point of being anonymous if you're just going to post identifying pictures of yourself and your kids?

 

[invisisole]

@kalynnken This is something I’ve only very recently realized the full extent of, and I’ve subsequently taken a huge step back from social media overall. I’ve never posted “questionable” photos of my child anywhere, but it’s made me rethink having her image floating around god knows where, regardless of how innocent the photo is in any decent person’s eyes.

 

[katrina2017]

@invisisole A girl I know posted her naked 2 year old pooping beside a pool. Poop coming out the bum and all. I reported it but it's still up. She also at the time kept posting about "save our children." So, irony, I guess.

 

[jaymair]

@katrina2017 Qanon drone - you should delete her anyway

 

[kalynnken]

@invisisole My wife and I try to heavily restrict how many photos of our daughter are on facebook and WILL NOT post them anywhere else (except to private message them to friends which is also a risk but less of one than to just throw them into the void). For us it isn't even about if the photos are questionable or not but our child can't consent to photos of herself being put online that will be there forever. We all cringe at the idea of our parents sitting our SOs down to look at baby pictures but don't bat an eye at putting photos online for thousands to see that their future classmates or employers or anyone else could easily find.

 

[keeneve]

@kalynnken I never even knew this but from the day DD was born we have never sent any pics online of her. We are also super strict with who we send pics of her to. Thank you for posting this as I can now send it to my parents who think I am nuts for being so protective of her and our privacy.

 

[jaz2001]

@kalynnken Thank you for this post.

 

[ash_ley4]

@kalynnken Thank you for bringing awareness! I just saw the post in my feed & thought it was odd.

 

[beastnate123]

@kalynnken Thank you. I saw that earlier and I thought it was kind of weird that they would do a best of like that.

 

[katrina2017]

@kalynnken I went to the pholder app. There are TONS from this subreddit.

 

[jannyw4011]

@kalynnken Thank you for this info! I had no idea. I dont post photos of my son to reddit or any other social site. Do you know about sharing photos via WhatsApp by chance? I use this to share with family only assuming it is safe?

 

[radam7]

@jannyw4011 We use Family Album by Mixi to share photos. Uploading photos to a 3rd party site is always risky, but I do like that only people that you specifically give access to are able to log in to see your kid. It also allows multiple people to upload photos and they are all stored in the same place. We are very specific about the photos we allow taken of our child (always clothed/covered, nothing that would be embarrassing to look back on as an adult (teenage years are another story, haha)) and very few people have access (immediate family only). As parents, we also have the ability to be notified of photos added and remove them and the family that posted them if we feel like we need to. I know this sounds like I am shilling for the company, but it is all the convenience of sharing on Facebook without as big of a security risk. Plus, I'm not bombarding people who shouldnt see my kid with the massive amount of pictures and videos I take of my LO.