Parents beware
 

This story is a nightmare for the parents involved.

Does anyone know if its a law for businesses that develop photos to notify authorities if they see child porn or similar unlawful activities?



The Mommy Files : Are bath-time photos child pornography?

I guess I'd have to see all the pictures to know what caused the Wal-Mart employee to react that way. Of course the family's lawyer is only going to release the most innocent, harmless-looking photo from the whole bunch, so that sample was expected.

Obvously, most all families take pictures of their kids unclothed and semi-clothed (I posted a photo of my own naked butt taken as a 2-month old infant over in one of the other threads before it was tastefully removed), so it could be a nightmare if the Wal-Mart employee and law enforcement were being jackasses.

However, it's entirely possible that the family photographer was being a knucklehead, too, and was posing the girls in ways that seemed like a cute idea at the time, but might be easily taken the wrong way by a stranger.

Craven, I know that from my profession as a teacher, I'm legally obligated to report any suspected abuse of any kind I might see in a school-setting, but I don't know what covenants Wal-Mart employees are bound by.

You'd assume that with digital cameras and home printing being so popular these days, most wouldn't risk bringing anything mildly questionable to be professionally printed but my time as a photo tech proved this assumption to be wrong. I couldn't begin to describe some of the shit that came my way.

Sounds like an unfortunate situation but I say they're better safe than sorry.

I can't say whether it was law or company policy but it was widely understood that anything and everything was kosher so long as it didn't involve children. If there were kids involved then so were the cops.

i was mildly pissed when i read this story from a link on fark.

i have a photo of my ex girlfriend (we're still close friends) at age 5 or 6, belly down and buck nekked on a bearskin rug. it was probably developed at a wal*mart sometime in the late 80's. wow, how times have changed.

I was a nudist when I was younger and I can count on 10-15 different sets of pictures in which I was parading around, proud of myself. Was I a source of child pornography? Hell no, this is a blow up situation where at Wal-Mart employee had a bad day and wanted to ruin someone elses day. It escalated from there.

unfortunately, CPS won't even get a wet noodle smacked across their hand due to qualified immunity.

this is the unfortunate crap that happens when people try to use 'common sense' without having any.

I don't think this would happen in any other advanced, modern country besides the US. Flame me for that, I don't care, it's my honest opinion.
It's completely ridiculous, and I can't believe what they put the parents through.

I have to agree... Almost every human being has had pictures like this taken by loving parents. I don't think it should be considered child pornogrophy just because the girls were semi nude in a bath tub. I mean.. How many of us have been in the same situation in the same poses and such... Now if the parents were naked with them then mayhap it would be different.

The same immunity they enjoy when they completely fail to notice blatant child abuse. I disagree on common sense, I think this is zero tolerance, the complete opposite.

wow, the stupidity that is involved with this BS starts my blood boiling...

I can't even put what I think into words, it just irritates me

I saw this story and had much the same reaction as everyone else. Common sense is so rare as to be completely lost these days. First of all, nudity isn't pornographic. It's the intent/use of the nudity that makes it pornographic. Secondly, the fact that this ever got beyond the police telling WalMart exactly where to go for even bothering them is troubling. Maybe they are just loving parents trying to capture a moment of innocence to use to embarrass their kids later in life. Or to relive such a moment when the urge to throttle an insolent teenager arises.

This is the same sort of idiotic paranoia that results in telling lost kids to go find a woman with kids or a police officer to ask for help. Avoid single men because we are all lurking, deranged child molesters who will kidnap them. I have always told my kids to go to the first adult they see. Period. I have actually been taken to task about that by a friend who works for Social Services. She can't believe I would endanger them like that!!!

Has the whole f***ing world gone insane???

(sorry... somewhat disjointed & maybe slightly off topic, but it pisses me off and I need to rant)

It seems, to me, that there were any number of opportunities for the plug to be pulled. The fact that it wasn't hints that there is perhaps a bit more to this than what we are being shown.

So, you have an overzealous Walmart employee that thinks that he's going to receive Employee of the Month for exposing a child pornography ring. OK, I can see that. But then it goes through, not just one, but a plethora of law enforcement officials, and lord only knows how many individuals from numerous local and state agencies. No one saw this as harmless and ridiculous?

Don't get me wrong. It probably was as innocent as we believe it to be. But, something smells like last weeks tuna cassarole, and I don't think that we know the full scope of it.

Yes. And I still say that they're much better off safe rather than sorry.

Nah man, don't sell the states short on this one, the CP-phobia has reached almost all civilized countries. Similar scenarios has happened a couple of times here as well (Sweden), although not with such devastating results. The matters were quiet quickly investigated and dealt with appropriately.

What strikes me a odd in this case is how long it took to resolve the situation...

I think that it is entirely believable that this is what happened, and there is no relevant information "not yet released."

Puritanism in every form is phobic in the US to almost psychotic levels, and the manifest fear that molesters and pedophiles lurk in every corner, and we are overwhelmed in an untold epidemic of double-lived sicko parents, uncles, babysitters, and creepy boys next door wreaking endless havoc on our innocent babies has become one of the worst shames on the American people-- and that is saying something.

People are naked sometimes. Some of those people are children. It is enjoyable and/or amusing to be naked. Especially if you are a child. People take pictures to remember enjoyable and/or amusing moments. That nudity by definition has come to equal pornography-- especially the most perverse sort-- is, in itself, sick. That parents taking pictures of their little kids at bathtime, as parents have done since the camera's invention (so as to whip them out later in life, and embarrass their children in front of their prom dates and prospective fiancees), now can result in government agencies taking children away from parents is more than sick, it is criminal.

This hysteria must stop. If we don't where will we end up? A society of adults who must always be paranoid about what they say to kids, who will fear always to touch kids even in the most innocent way; of parents who will fear their babies' skin, and dress their toddlers in burqas. Madness. It is all madness.

I'm 61, single and always have been (single that is). I never touch a child. I don't need the shit people will project on me.

Shit like this makes my blood boil. America is fucked up in this regard.

Well, it's fucked up in many regards, but this sits right at the top of fucked up things that just flat out piss me off.

This is a direct consequence of the fear and paranoia that has spread across this country, by our government and yes, "the media". Of course these photos were nothing new and obviously not pornography, but the machine must be fed, and we all must be afraid. SNAFU

Please keep being afraid, and for Pete's sake keep allowing this kind of crap to continue happening to you. Be a victim yay!!!

I hope, against hope, that she successfully sues Walmart and every level of government that allowed this travesty to happen.

New Walmart ad:
"I'm a pedophile and I take my photos to Walmart because they have excellent service and their prints are first rate!"

Intelligence is not a prereqisite for working at WallyWorld nor is it required for state employes.
Idiots.....we need them to show us how not to be.

I think there is probably more to this story than we are being told and shown. If it were entirely as reported, it wouldn't have gotten so far. Something in it was suspicious enough to keep it moving higher up the enforcement chain.

Think about it. Millions of people have millions of similar photos of their kids processed every year. How many Wal-Marts and how many photos?

Wal-Mart probably has a policy that if an employee suspects something, it has to be reported. But once it was out of Wal-Mart's domain, it kept going. Something kept it going and it might or it might not have been lack of common sense.

Something about this alarmed or alerted the employee and the law enforcement agencies enough to keep investigating it. Maybe the Wal-Mart person was wrong, but maybe they were right.

And, it is possible that this family may well have been victimized. I don't think I can sit in judgment on either side without all the facts and without seeing all the photos.

The Moral of the story is apt though. Be careful who sees your family photos. The world is a wacky place anymore.

On the other hand, I find it just as plausible that the pictures in this particular instance were completely innocuous, but that these folks were unlucky enough to encounter a long string of senselessness. Given that millions and millions of folks have photos of their kids processed each year, it's a statistical certainty that at some point, a set of completely innocent photos will hit a string of folks unwilling to give the benefit of the doubt.

Obviously the lawyer released the sweetest most innocent looking photo. Passing judgement on the dude that works there is premature.

Like others, I can't judge this situation just by that one picture.

I was a miniature nudist when I was younger... and so was my nephew. My family took lots of pictures of us being silly and I'm sure I posed in "very suggestive" ways.. but my family didn't take it as perverted.. it probably didn't even cross their mind that somewhere out there is a sicko who would love to have been an audience to my nude antics.


The person at WalMart either knew too much about child porn or too little to think a photo was suggestive.

Fuck Wal-Mart!


/still shops there

I found this pic, and thought it apropos to the thread.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/09...otographer.jpg

I worked in a photo lab, for a short period of time, and have a developed a few films containing pornography...thankfully none were children. That's not to say I didn't develop pictures of young children in the bath or otherwise in the buff. I realize that child nudity is a gray area these days, but as a parent, I believe I would recognize a picture of a child in a loving family environment as opposed to one in a demoralizing and dangerous situation. In their well meaning haste to protect the innocent, it's unfortunate the Wal-Mart employees created so much grief for the family involved.

I don't know if it's a law to report suspected child abuse, but it was the company policy, where I worked, to report any photos I deemed abusive...children, adults, animals...whatever.

I agree. This is totally fucked.

There's a very, very large diffferent between porn, and nudity. Just becase a chidl is nude or partially nude doesn't make it porn. She's right, every family takes those photos. I have pictures of my sister and I butt naked int he bath together untill she's like 10. I'm 7 years younger than her. Does that make HER a bad person, or my parents? No. It makes us kids playing in the bath as sisters. And my family recording these cute moments. This world is fucked sometimes. The world scares the shit out of me because there are people who take naked pictures of their kids and jack off to them. There are people who keep their 6 month olds in a room with their dog for 13 years until someone finds out and the poor kid can never speak english but can tell your German Shepard what's up. And then there are innocent people that take pictures of their kids, wrapped in a towel, playing in the bath, swimming at the beach, who get charged for child pornography.

I don't get it.