I don't want to be overly paranoid but...

Ok this is a theme close to my heart, so scuse me if I rant a while.

There is risk in all things. Also in all things you have to trust somebody somewhere. If you can't take some things on trust then you stop living to an extent.

One of the reasons we moved away from the Costa del Sol because we met so many fraudsters that I almost stopped trusting people. It's a horrible way to be and to be honest, I would rather be ripped off for a few hundred quid every now and again than lose trust.

Also on the trust/risk theme, I've ranted several times before about how much I hate the fact that a lot of freedom (for children and adults) has been curtailed because of the miniscule risk presented by peadophile strangers. As I've said before, I think that paranoid attitudes about it present a greater risk to children than the peadophiles.

But more to the point, where is the risk in posting meetup details online? What's going to happen? Some sad git who likes reading the rantings of a load of scarey, profound, shallow, paranoid, mad and hormonally challenged women may get to actually see some of you/us. Or even meet us. What is so sinister? I think potential stalkers/rapists would go for an easier target.

Anyway, please don't let one person spoil your trust. It's precious.

& these days, your kids are unlikely to so much as walk down the high street without their every move being tracked on CCTV...

OK, probably best not to post your kids' pics in conjunction with your home address, telephone number, email & details of where they go to school (& check THEY aren't...I posted awhile back about a whole class of kids I teach who couldn't quite get why this was inadvisable! ). But beyond that, not worth worrying about. The recent meddling is obviously some silly bugger lurker deciding to wind people up a bit...

Don't think you were stupid to post them.

I never understood the paranoia of having pictures of perfectly normal fully clothed kids doing kid things available on show. My children are statistically more at risk from a family member or someone who befriends the family to get at them.

A paedophile is hardly going to bother when they can go down Tesco and see dozens of kids. And even then only a very minor percentage of sexual harrassments or assaults are done by strangers.

Photographs that float a paed's boat are likely to be much MUCH more explicit that kid number 1 bopping kid number 2 on the head with a sippy cup. That's why the raids on computers and following of credit card details etc. And hell - even pictures of kids in swimwear/pantomime costume - why bother when you can just pick up a Blooming Marvellous catalogue?!

As Gwenwick says, take reasonable precautions, don't over inflate the risks, be aware of normal security that you would take in your everyday life.

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Socci, why don't you get them removed?

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i get offered penis enlargements. might pass those to dh.

well yeah I usually get those too - not much good for me though what they're offering - last time I checked I was definitely a women PMSL

porn?/ where?? give me password.

You lucky so & so, all I ever get is people trying to sell me cheap drugs!

i am still a wallaby btw. no-one (apart from mieow) knows what i look like, and belive me, its you lot that are being saved from the horror.

yeah - you can have my hotmail password - don't check it very often and it's usually full of porn anyhow - so you're all welcome to it if you want LOL

I am a moo.

And yes, it wasn't too bright to post passwords but there we go. At least none of us who did can be said to be hiding behind our MN persona, unlike some others...

Doesn't matter anyway. OK, it was a bit daft (would you post your hotmail password?) but ANY photo you point people at (ie. I posted a link to dh's band's site because there's a photo of me there) is going to immediately be in the public domain.

Anyone who feels so inclined may well have right-clicked on it, copied it to their HD & be using it for any number of nefarious purposes...setting up a fake web page to back up their false online persona, even?

wouldn't we all like to know hey Pink

Oh and BTW - before you start accusing me - it's not LOL

mooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

/me slaps paranoiapolice with wet kipper.

Oh shut up paranoiapolice