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

[soapbox]

given the problems experienced on the 'other' thread today I think arranging meet-ups and posting all the venue and time information on the boards may be inadvisable.

You just never know

What do you think?

Socci, why don't you get them removed?

Message withdrawn

Socci - if you posted them in a 'photobucket' sort of way you can just change your password for the providor and that way no one will be able to access them!

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.

& 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...

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.

I have posted pics of my kids and would do so again.

I think Casmie is right. Children are more likely to be preyed upon by people they know than strangers. A relative, family friend, etc.

So would I SA - I have no problem with posting links to photos of me, my family, or websites I'm involved with. But if I posted my user name & password to any webhosted files (eg. photobucket, yahoo or hotmail) on a public forum such as this, I wouldn't be amazed if some silly sod mucked about with them.

& no, I am NOT paranoiapolice btw - I agree with the sentiment, but I wouldn't've expressed it so bluntly & wouldn't've hidden my identity to post it!

Oh well - maybe I'm just an old worry wart

TBH it was the fact that the folks who posted their piccies said that the number of hits on their photobuckets was in teh 200+ region today that had me wondering if someone had linked into the photos from somewhere else - which is a little freaky IMHO

But maybe there were just a lot of mn lurkers around today

Not unusual. I often see masses of hits when I post a link to one of my sites on here even when no-one has actually responded to my post. I think an awful lot of people read/click without ever actually posting. I know I do if I'm in a hurry

You could try sticking the link in Technorati.com to see if anyone's referencing it somewhere other than mumsnet (although it doesn't necessarily list everything and isn't foolproof by any stretch of the imagination).

Could well be - a friend of mine had her web counter rocket after her ex linked to her homepage from some ghastly 'my ex is a minger' type site (same nice guy who used to threaten to ring music venues he knew she'd be at & claim there was a bomb under the stage...)

You just have to accept that once you post a photograph on the internet, ANYWHERE, you no longer have ANY control over where it ends up.

But I really really don't think it's paedophiles or whatever you need to worry about (all busy with the Blooming Marvellous catalogue no doubt...) - just idiots playing silly buggers & hoping to frighten you.

yes, soapbox, you're an old worry wart!

Casmie - you're quite right.

what has been going on on mn , i havent been here for a few hours what have i missed

this is me. see, I'm not scared!

PMSL @ SP

BTW, SP - while you're here, did you get my email from a week ago or so? I've had issues with my spam trap, so wasn't sure if it had got caught somewhere on route or back again.

(poster formerly known as GeorginaA)

Is it the Bl**dy bat??

No, it's not the bat

PMSL - SP

actually carrei that's not strictly true about the 'where it ends up' - my Dad has a website for his photographic business all of the images have 'permanent' copyright marks on them, and the you can't right click on them - and they can't be printed out either. He had to buy software to be able to do that - but it 'is' possible.

Casmie - yes, sorry I haven't replied yet. Still wading through 2 weeks worth of spam (our filter is not very good)

Well, yes, Gwenick. But I bet it's possible to buy software to get round your dad's software, iykwim!

For everyday purposes (ie. people without a professional interest in copyrighting issues using cheap or free webhosting) I still think it's safest to assume that if it's on t'internet, it's in the public realm & accessible to Weirdos'R'Us.

No don't worry, that's fine As I say, am just training a new spam filter and I managed to be a bit over zealous one day