To think some people are just too damn paranoid?

[FairfaxAikman]

Our local paper did the annual "kids going back to school" photo spread this week.

They asked parents to send in pics of their DC on their first day with a chance to have them printed in a keepsake edition, and many parents obliged via their Facebook page.
However some miserable sods people (all women for some reason) questioned the wisdom of this, with one calling it "a shop window for predators".

AIBU to think that's OTT - surely if someone is going to abduct a child (a very rare event in itself) then they would just hang about outside a school, not peruse the local rag?

Is this thread about me?

It’s a little OTT... but also not really - Hi there my name is Mr C Abuser and I like the look of a child in the paper.

a child’s name and a picture of their school uniform- I can now find the home address of that child in a few minutes, if they’re a little older probably a load of their social media accounts as well and peruse through their pictures. I can also ‘probably’ find family members and now the names of ‘uncle jim’ etc
If the school is close to their home I will assume they walk and can probably guesse the route and know what time the schools kick out.

Welcome to the world of the internet.

Know ^

Are you the only person in Britain who is unaware of the problems we're having with paedophiles stealing images of children on the internet?

Stop judging.

I don't think that is too paranoid at all. It is much easier to abduct a child by turning up at the school and picking them out from the crowd, calling them by their name and saying mummy asked me to pick you up than waiting around outside and trying to grab a random child. Children are very trusting and if a stranger knows what you like like and they know your name why wouldn't you believe that they are a friend of your mummy?

I think there can be genuine reasons for not wanting a photo in the paper for eg when the child is adopted or the parents have split due to abuse etc but the whole "peedo" thing is ridiculous.

Paedophiles aren't generally known for being interested in images of kids fully clothed

@GreatDuckCookery it was the parents submitting the pics.

Complete strangers snatching kids is incredibly rare. Its those who know your kid you have to be wary of, and few are.

Sorry not with you OP.

The older I get and the closer it gets to me having my first baby I am part of the "no photos of my children in public" army. When I was younger or didn't have any other responsibilities other than myself it was ignorance that I didn't think peoples photos of children would be used in an appropriate manner. Now I see how obvious it is

First of all, if your a local pervert where is the first place your going to look to get your hook of young children? The local paper which is advertising a keep sake child edition! Its free advertisment for them! I bet they cannot believe their luck when stuff like this happens!

Second of all, but more extreme, there are photos that end up on the dark web to be sold by sick individuals. A lot of these photos are innocent ones posted on FB by unknowing parents. Children in baths, bed time, half naked running around on holiday etc. Mr Paedo is looking for photos like these to sell or worse. There are people out there that are so disgusting and sick that will see that photo and see something else that we think is just cute innocent children. Also a lot of these photos get photoshopped to making them even more disgusting

I will post the odd photo here or there, maybe a little family profile photo on social media with my DD when she is born, but I will never put hundreds of photos online of her. Its just not worth the risk of photos of your little baby ending up in the hands of some of this awful, deranged people

@GreatDuckCookery as in it's not like the school submitted the pics without parental permission, but the parents themselves. If they didn't want the child's image in for the reasons you said then they were under no obligation to submit one

Forgot to add, I wouldn't judge or comment on anybody putting photos of their little ones in the newspaper or wherever. I would comment on it and cause a fuss over nothing, I just wouldn't submit one, simple as.

I wouldn't comment ^^

I get you, they should have just kept their thoughts to themselves and let the parents crack on I guess.

Seems the paranoia is widespread.😂

I think I probably fall into the ‘paranoid’ category. I always wonder why people always post a photo of their new baby on social media with their full name, date of birth, weight etc. It just seems like so much information potentially falling into the wrong hands. Then a few years later they have them in full school uniform with school logos on etc. I don’t know what I think will happen, but then I don’t know how these sick people work. At the very least, surely somewhere along the line you would use some of that info as security questions.

I just find the whole supplement thing for this really weird - we don't have this in our area in any of the local papers, it's weird!

DC are told in online training they receive that they should never put any identifying details of themselves online such as a photos with school uniforms visible, so parents aren't sending out the most consistent messages by sending these photos to the paper.
3/4 of sexual abuse is carried out by someone the DC knows and the risk of stranger danger is a lot lower than many people believe so excessive paranoia isn't helpful but some consistency in the messages we are giving our DC would be.

Yep. Child is definitely going to be abducted by a paedophile.

🙄

It’s great as a kid having your photo in the paper. Parental Paranoia threatens to suck every bit of fun out a child life.

Not sure its relevant that the parents are submitting the pictures, the comments / opinions are still valid regardless.

Yes people probably are a little over concerned these days, but you could also say that in the past people were not concerned enough.

More to the point, why? Why would you want to send your photo into the paper. I’m always a bit “eh” about people that submit photos of their kids with their A level results, but at least they’ve achieved something. Why the hell would any parent think “oh, I’ve got a nice pic of the kids on their first school day, but instead of just printing that and putting it up at home, I’ll send it to the paper and get myself a copy on shitty newsprint paper that will get damp and horrible in a cupboard for years”

Even if the risk of some predator tracking the child down is 0.000005%, isn’t that risk too much to trade for the benefit of a shitty photo in the paper? The paper are doing it for their own reasons too, you liking and sharing the picture of the kid brings people to the site, they aren’t doing it to record some important moment in history

And in line with what someone upthread said, the sort of person that sends these photos to the paper / local paper Facebook site is usually the sort of person to have 500 Facebook friends, 80 they actually know, and so little privacy settings / awareness of what they are oversharing that they are probably more exposed than normal people.

So YABU,some people aren’t too paranoid, but some people who aren’t in the slightest paranoid are too stupid.

I think there is a safeguarding concern about children who need to be anonymous because there is good reason for the absent parent or other family member not knowing where they are.

The consenting to photos at school thing is there for that reason, not because of random paedophiles.

But in this case, surely it's a voluntary thing. Why complain? Just don't participate.

I'm with you, excessive paranoia

I was super excited to be in the paper and on the news as a kid and I'd be more than happy for my son to appear

I don't think I've ever seen a news story about a kidnap after a paedophile saw a random child on tv/the Internet/in a newspaper. They are in far more danger from people they already know statistically

My kids have both been in the newspaper because of school or sporting events several times. It's surely a fairly normal thing.

Kids love being in the paper, it does not matter if it is for an achievement or not.