Pictures of children should be banned

[WannaBe]

Over the years there have been numerous trolls who have lifted pictures from the Internet to back up their stories. Premature babies/sick children etc. These pictures have almost certainly been lifted from other blogs or websites.

Conversely other posters may post pictures of their children here which would be equally easy to lift by someone wanting to troll elsewhere.

And furthermore, we have in the past had at least one user here who turned out to be a suspected paedophile selling pictures to paedophile rings for doctoring for nefarious purposes.

Banning all pictures of children would put a stop to any of that in the name of MN.

Yes, true. But, who would police the photos?

And it wouldn't stop trolling.

It could to an extent.

Not many trolls would want to use their own photos for things like cancer threads. No picture of a Hickman line or anything IRL.

Yes, but the problem is, a handful of trolls are then making things royal pain the arse for the 1000s of genuine users.

And MNHQs job would be bigger, because users would be forever reporting photos that didn't fit the new guidelines.

Yeah I suppose so

Mind you I don't object to photos on here in the first place

Banning pictures of children won't stop trolls or paedophiles. There are hundreds of thousands of photos of kids available all over the place, most school and hospital websites for starters! 'That' thread was horrible and would have still been so even without the photos. By all means educate widely (as is already done on here) that posting identifiable information on the web should be done with extreme caution but banning it would, in my opinion, be the wrong move.

No, how ridiculous. What we need to stop is people being complete grief muppets and being sucked into competitive sobbing. I've managed quite well to share my story and express sympathy on a sick child thread and not ruin my day by hijacking their pain.
And people who can't do that should just avoid threads they will find triggering or sad.

Otherwise how will posters celebrate the lives of their deceased children - no more photos of them? Or just trusted posters? It's a minefield once you start nannying people.

I think it's a good idea. I don't see any need to post a picture of DC. You can post rashes or hair etc without showing the childS face. Maybe it's ok for babies as they all look the same

Tineye doesn't always work well.

Another "how ridiculous" reaction from me.
Will add it this to the list of "Reasons why I am an idiot to post on MN" if this comes in.

Banning photos of children is just letting the trolls win and letting their actions dictate how Mumsnet can be used by the thousands of genuine posters.

I don't think it's a particularly good idea and I don't think it will stop trolling tbh.

Just ban the trolls

No. Ridiculous. Would all photos be vetted first. Or reported(adding more work for MNHQ?)

There will always be trolls. Funny ones, bored ones, fucking sick ones. Avoid overly emotive threads if no poster history, disconnected posting style, hinting at needing/wanting money, fast moving and implausible. Keep your wits about you and didn't get too involved.

No need to ban photos of children

I know other people disagree but I think it's a bit questionable to post pictures if DC even if you are not a troll. I think it should be up to individual whether they post pictures of themselves on the internet. Kids are too young to make the decision and there is generally no need for parents to make that decision on their behalf.

I agree, with Hidden

Well if parents can't be trusted to make decision about photos of their own children, what is the point of having photo consent in schools or clubs?

At what point is it ever OK to take photo of a child? When are parents allowed to show that photo if a child to anyone?

at what point does is stop? Should there be no child models, actors or singers?

i have never seen a pic of a kid on here and i have been here forEVER
The only one i ever saw was this

I don't think it's a good idea to ban people from posting pictures of their DC is they want to.

Not least because it doesn't happen very often (pics generally aren't posted as much as they used to be) though of course things are often a little different immediately after publicity brings in a wave of new posters.

Things will be a lot different if it becomes more heavily moderated and with more rules.

People can, if they wish, post pictures of their DC all over the Internet., on open sites like this one. People can choose never to post them. Or perhaps to post them only where they have some idea of the privacy settings. And I think they should continue to make that choice themselves.

I was hoping it was going to be that picture Jack

I agree OP - I suggested this on another thread.

Nothing to stop pics of rashes etc being used, just not clearly identifiable pictures of children.

And furthermore, we have in the past had at least one user here who turned out to be a suspected paedophile selling pictures to paedophile rings for doctoring for nefarious purposes.

How on earth would you know that? I doubt Mumsnet would tell us!

If pictures of children should be banned then we should also ban all detailed discussion of any real child's health, emotional situations, academic achievements, etc. It's all too identifying and private. How dare we share such info with the whole world.

And furthermore, we have in the past had at least one user here who turned out to be a suspected paedophile selling pictures to paedophile rings for doctoring for nefarious purposes.

That sounds a lot like an urban myth,, Why would anyone buy the pictures when this is an open forum?