Unless you are a parent, zip it, when it comes to your opinion of other parents

I was surprised at the strong opinions that were presented in class about posting naked/censored naked pictures of children, and just pictures of children in general. It turned into more of a conversation than I would have predicted, especially given the other content that has been covered. It was surprising that this topic was what got people to talk. It irked me a little bit, as it often does, when people without children talk about the decisions of parents. Naked/bath baby pictures have always just been one of those things that all parents did. It’s kind of like a right of passage/milestone/tradition type thing. Yes. The world has sick people in it. It has always had sick people in it. But sick people are going to do what sick people are going to do. When you begin not posting pictures of your kids (and I’m not saying not to cover them up, because you definitely should regardless. Keep the unedited ones in your albums – if for no other reason than embarrassment in front of significant others later – also a right of passage haha) because of what someone MIGHT do with them, that begins to spill into the notion of blaming the victim rather than the perp. Victims/potential victims should not have to alter their behavior because of what someone might do. It’s just like saying: if a girl doesn’t want to be raped or stalked, don’t go out by yourself at night, don’t wear skimpy clothes, change your routine/avoid the person, etc. It’s asinine. Pictures of kids are the same thing. Sharing pictures online offers cross-coast/cross-world families the ability to share in each other’s lives in a way that wasn’t possible before – essentially in real time. Sure, you can do a scrapbook/photo album (which I happen to love, BTW), but those take time, and are separate from everyday function that you have to deliberately make a point to set aside the time to do it. Posting is quicker, more streamlined, more personal/in the moment, and overall less interrupting of the typical day.

Saying that posting pictures of kids online has just ruined the chance of them going into the CIA or whatever was seriously pushing it too far and far-fetched. The likelihood of being in THAT sensitive of a field later in life is incredibly rare and more tv-like than reality. Not to mention, if they were to require the absolute wiping of their existence, the government has the means to do so. Plus, the odds of having zero other record of the child, even without ever posting a picture of your child yourself, is virtually zero.

The [un]comfort level of nudity that is the American culture is also at play here. Everyone automatically equates nudity with sex rather than just being what it is. So many other places are mature enough to not sexualize everything they possibly can, why can’t America do the same? No country sexualizes kids like America does. Look at the clothes, the beauty pageants.