I don't have kids of my own, but I do post pictures of my niece and nephews, with their mother's permission. Funny thing, I have them locked down far more than they do (on my profile, only my friends can see the pictures. they have them set that friends of friends etc. can see them.)

You know, I never thought about this (probably because it has yet to happen). I have adult friends who became upset after someone posted their picture on a social networking site without permission. I would think that in the case of a child, you would definitely get the parents' "okay" before proceeding. I was just telling a colleague that, just like the cell phone, people have yet to determine/master the proper etiquette for social marketing.

Thanks for sharing your take on this issue. I didn't know you could lock down the pictures on Facebook. I will share that info with a friend of mine who almost hit the roof when she heard her son's picture was on facebook without her permission.

Here are my thoughts. I have run into the same problem with my newborn. His picture was posted without my consent. I don't feel it is right posting a picture of a child or any minor on the internet. Facebook says in the terms of use that they have permission to do whatever they feel with those pictures. Also regaurdless of privacy settings, my child'd picture has been posted as a profile pic. Which can be "googled" and viewed by anyone; facebook does nothing from stopping any internet user from copying and pasting this content.
I filed an abuse complaint to facebook which has got me nowhere they haven't even let me know that they recieved my complaint(I would call but they have no number to speak of)I have also filed a complaint with thier monitoring website Truste. Still waiting for thier respnse. I am outaged and feel helpless as a parent that I can not remove the information myself.

I totally agree that permission should be asked of the parent. Someone has posted pictures of my kids on facebook without my permission. I don't allow my kids on facebook for safety reasons. This particular person will not remove the photos when I have asked her to. She is disrespecting my parenting rule and it upsets me tremendously!

I totally agree that permission should be asked of the parent. Someone has posted pictures of my kids on facebook without my permission. I don't allow my kids on facebook for safety reasons. This particular person will not remove the photos when I have asked her to. She is disrespecting my parenting rule and it upsets me tremendously!

What does not posting pics do for the security of your children? I mean I understand your thinking - people don't know what they look like, so they wont go after them.
I think the bigger issue is that people need to not post personal info period. So there's no harm posting pics of your kids - just don't go posting your address and exact location, and your kids will be safe.

I think many of the parents who are opposed to thier kids' pictures being posted on facebook don't understand the issues. I've known of many parents who wholeheartedly allow thier kids' pictures posted on other websites, but facebook freaks them out, even if it actually offers more control than many other photo sharing sites. Any picture can be taken off any site on the internet, but chances are no one except your facebook friends (or perhaps thier friends) would see a picture of your child there. In addition, your child's photo is probably all over picasa, myspace, photobucket, etc., but those sites don't inform you of pictures being posted like facebook probably did. (Enter a popular kids' name into the search feature in Picasa and see for yourself.)

I agree with Sasha--the bigger issue is to be careful about posting personal info.

For Upset's issue--I don't understand how your infant's picture can be googled because it is a profile picture. How did this person obtain the photo in the first place? It seems that therein lies the problem.

All of that being said, I do think parents should be informed of their children's pictures being used. They should have the right to deny or allow it--even if they're ignorant about the issues.

The years I spent working in TV production made me extraordinarily sensitive about how images are used and consumed. It's wrong to broadcast people's images without their permission. Children are too young to give theirs. So, unless your child is a celebrity, don't do it. (This isn't just about safety. It's about privacy and autonomy, too.)

Here's a freaky story about a Massachusetts mom who found a photo of her own child being used as part of an adoption scam: http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO120552/ (MA mother finds own child advertised to adoption).

It also makes me uncomfortable when my friends use their children's photos as their own Facebook avatars. (Creepy.)

I know, I know, I'm a total hothouse flower on this issue. It's just that the world has changed much and I don't think people regard their own or their children's images and privacy highly enough.

I'm trying to figure out how to get FB to remove photos of MY children from a relative's FB page. She has refused my request to do so herself and when you try to report the photos, the ONLY allowances are copyright, nudity, violence, advertising, drug use or hate. It's ridiculous really, that you can't request the photo of your own child be taken down because you have not given permission for it to be there. My sister has over 500 friends and I'm pretty sure she doesn't limit any of her photo albums to family only. I'm rather furious over this!

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yeah ,i think so