As a new mom, I completely understand the compulsiveness to take as many photos as you possibly can in the lifetime of your new bundle of baby. I mean you can never ever have enough! I have to capture every single part of my son's life at least 100x per day. And I do. Between Chris & I, I'm sure we have darn near 2000 photos of Cohen. Some are of the same exact pose as the last except maybe an arm is up, & now down, & now he has his foot! I take photos of him smiling, wearing a new outfit, during tummy time, & during bath time. However, there is 1 photo out of the ones mentioned that is different than the rest.
Along with capturing every waking (& sleeping) moment of my son, I enjoy sharing those moments with loved ones. I share some of Cohen's photos on Facebook. Who doesn't, right? I'm sure there are friends on there that think 'Give it a rest already... geez,' but hey, that's my boy & I am proud of that. I made that baby. I want to share him. Anyway, before sharing Cohen with my Facebook people, I deleted anyone who I didn't really know. I privatized the heck out of it, too. Now, I also have family who like to share photos of my son. They have my whole hearted trust that they know exactly who their friends are & would hopefully never put my son's photos in danger. I trust they all are aware of who they are showing.
I am so afraid of what's "out there." It's a scary place, the internet. You can find anything. You can link anyone. If it's out there, you can find it. Just remember that.
Back to the differing photo mentioned above. The difference in them is that I did not share the bath time photo. Sure, I always have my son covered, but that doesn't matter. Sure, it's the cutest thing ever seeing him splashing around, but that doesn't matter either. Being part of a social media site with a huge group of people that gave birth in June, I see all kinds of adorable baby photos. Unfortunately, some of those excited moms share photos that I believe need to stay away from the internet. I just saw an album today someone shared that included nude photos of their children during bath time. I urged her to take the album down! Hopefully, she listened.
Look, new mommy hood is amazing & we all want to share our beautiful creations. But any mom, whether a newby or a 'been there done that' needs to stop, wake up, & take a step back. There are pictures out there that do not belong on Facebook, for example, bath time fun (covered or not). Mommas, I don't even want to think about this.. let alone say it, but those photos are not safe. Anyone can screenshot anything these days. There are real sites out there that steal these types of "cute" photos to share with disgusting individuals who will rate the baby or make lewd comments. The idea of this makes me want to pass out. But it needs to be known. Please, I beg any new parent to make sure you are more than safe when it comes to photos of your children. On my own Facebook, I've seen friends share photos of their child that make me cringe & want to shake them. Even though my own page is private, I will never share a photo of my son that I think isn't "safe." I don't care if I know each & every person, you can never know who else may somehow see them. I have never felt more paranoid about my privacy, & more importantly my son's, than now. (Sometimes I ask myself why I even put any of his photos on the internet at all.)
Protect your babies. Please, don't be naive. There are disgusting people looking for these things every day. And if you still somehow trust the internet, just be aware that in the time you have read this, I could have stolen any & all of those adorable bath time (or any other internet-inapproriate) photos you shared with the world. This goes for any social media sites.
(Note: I do not & will not take any photos that anyone may take of their child. I just wanted to make a point & I hope I did.)
xo
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