Real Stories
Parents and children like those featured here are the reason we started KidsLink. Each week, a new online privacy breach seems to emerge, but by giving families a better option and helping them #ShareResponsibly, KidsLink aims to eliminate stories like these.
Nashville mom Ashley B. was shocked when she noticed Facebook users from China were liking a photo of her 5-year old daughter. She soon realized that a man she didn’t know had shared the photo, along with those of dozens of other young girls. Though she couldn’t read the profile and its comments, it was clearly a photo repository of young American girls. Ashley removed the photo, but as a budding photographer, she’s now hesitant to share her work on social media. [Contact us if you’d like to interview Ashley]
Lindsey, an Atlanta mother and blogger, often shared pictures of her son on social media until the day an un-watermarked photo of her son was “digitally kidnapped.” A California teenager used photos of other people’s children for “role play” games. With a new raised awareness, Lindsey now uses KidsLink to #ShareResponsibly. [Contact us if you’d like to interview Lindsey]
ABC News shared the disheartening story of Addy Clifton, whose photos were stolen and used on a fake Instagram account while she battled Leukemia. The 2-year-old’s cousin created a Facebook Group enlisting virtual support from loved ones, but photos from the page were stolen and reclaimed under false identity. While there was no evidence of the thief using Addy’s photos for financial gain, Addy’s parents felt violated and expressed concern for other parents who are sharing photos of their children online. [Read the full ABC News article here]
“Role playing” with children’s photos was not something that Oklahoma City dad, Caleb, had heard of before his own child fell victim to it. When his baby girl was born premature, he started a Facebook page and online fundraiser to raise awareness and money for her medical bills. One day, Caleb found that his daughter’s photo was posted to a Jacksonville Role Playing Facebook page, where anonymous users were making up sexualized and fictional stories about the children who were pictured. The site was later taken down, but more than 20,000 posts of innocent children still exist on Instagram when you search #babyrp. [Read the full ABC 10 article here]
Rick and Natalie, an Ohio couple who shared their 3-week-old baby’s photo to Facebook, had a rude awakening when they realized the photo was stolen to create a fake family online. Even worse, the woman who stole the photo was a Facebook friend of Natalie’s who followed her blog. The woman shared photos of the child, claiming it as her own. Rick and Natalie’s story reminds us to be careful of who to accept as a friend and even more importantly, what you are sharing on the virtually unprotected Internet. [Read the full Facecrooks article here]