a girl and her Teddy new 50 f/1.8!

Is this better??

Lelasmama05 wrote in post #5246985
Is this better??

Nicely done!

Very nicely done.

And I'm glad to see you are maintaining a good sense of humor about it all.

LOL! thank you

Lelasmama05 wrote in post #5248259
LOL! thank you

You should market those! I bet those are really easy to wash or are they biodegradable?

c_lawrence wrote in post #5244387
you're welcome although the reasons were not opinions but rather based on true events.



Physically, you are correct assuming you mean just posting or selling them elsewhere... emotionally is another story if they were to somehow find out, which is typically not likely.



I agree with regard to the IP address. I never stated one would have to be a hacker or have even the slightest IT knowledge to track someone down. I realize it is easy in forums to read about issues that spark emotions and insert opinions/words/ideas that are not in the post so, maybe I should have been more elaborate with the details... guess I will do so now:

A mother posts a beatiful, innocent photograph of her child on her website. On another page on her website it states she live in Example City, State. A predator comes to her website through a simple Google Image search for children in his state. The predator lives in the same city. Through the mother's blog and entries made by her friends, the predator learns of an event the mother will be attending. The predator attends as well. The predator finds and meets the mother and through casual conversation learns what school her child attends. Additionally, after 'coincidental' meetings around the child's school and community, the predator manipulates a friendship with the mother and quickly turns from stranger to family accquaintance. The predator now has access and the child eventually becomes a victim.

... far fetched? ... paranoid dellusions? ... no, true story.
Again, does this happen often? Probably not, but how would you define "often" if that was your child?

Once more, I do not believe that we should succum to the culture of fear that is prevalent in our society. I do not believe this information should scare anyone off of the Internet or from posting photos. I do think that people should be educated and then take reasonable precautions. Most people live on this level everyday... there are legitimate risks in the world, you do things to reduce those risks, and then you go one with your daily lives... why should this be any different? For example, (and I know this differs depending on location, but this is just an example) what are the odds that YOUR car will be stolen while you run into a store to go shopping? Propbably pretty low, but the risk is still there, so you lock the doors. There's no need to install surveillance equipment in your dash board or run outside every two minutes to make sure your car's still there, but we take precautions none the less and go on about our daily lives. This is all that is being suggested.



Although I think this last question is irrelevant to the topic at hand... because April is Child Abuse Prevention Month... here are some information about statistics on child sexual asbuse:
http://www.darkness2li​ght.org/KnowAbout/stat​istics_2.asp
Some Stats:
1 in 4 girls is sexually abused before the age of 18.
1 in 6 boys is sexually abused before the age of 18.
1 in 5 children are solicited sexually while on the internet.
Nearly 70% of all reported sexual assaults (including assaults on adults) occur to children ages 17 and under.
An estimated 39 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse exist in America today.

Not to beat up on ya, but those figures are to be taken with a grain of salt. They, like the stats on global warming, are taking the extreme consequences of trends plus the addition of key areas that had never been included in previous years. The data is based on reported cases of abuse - they estimate from a point of every 1,000 cases and apply those numbers to the whole. That is a messed up way to figure anything out.

Now, as far as photos = higher risk factors I again would have to disagree. In the past 10 years can you relate any such case of a total stranger seeing a pic of a kid on the internet, tracking them down and then doing them harm? How many pictures of kids are on the net now, a billion? Probably more than that since they are the number one photographed subjects.

Always question anyone that tries to uses fear to manipulate you. Always suspect those who use the most extreme cases to prove their point.

OK... this is the last time I am getting into a discussion like this on this forum because people like the two of you continue to put words/ideas into my posts that simply are not there. I don't know how many times I have to repeat myself again and again and again...

MaxxuM and Titus213:

"You have taken a single, rare occurrence and turned it into a cause for widespread fear"..... "Always question anyone that tries to uses fear to manipulate you. Always suspect those who use the most extreme cases to prove their point."..... unbelieveable.... I'm not even the first one to post anything on this thread, which has become so completely off track and rediculous. All I did initailly was agree with the first couple of posters, try to provide some SUGGESTIONS (not promote a paranoid culture of fear, or what ever you two are reading into this), and then I end up having to defend my intelligence on the matter. Unbelievable. And Titus, I'd like to thank you especially for your insults and request for specific examples, which I gave you, only for you to then take that information (which you asked for) and state that I was trying to use it as "a cause for widespread fear". The stupid thing is that I have agreed with both of you completely with regard to people not needing to go overboard and become fearful, yet all you seem to get from my posts is.... I don't even know at this point because you both seem to be trying to argue and defend the main points that I agree with you on. What exactly is the problem? Once again,

... "reasonable precautions" is not intended to mean "freak out and run and hide your children and never post pictures of them on the Internet again because someone might come and abduct and rape your child".... does this pretty much sum up your overreactions to my posts??! How are my ACTUAL words 'promoting a culture of fear', 'producing overriding concerns', or 'manipulating people into fear'? Caution does not equal fear.

YOU asked for factual incidents and I chose one factual example to give you and then you go and run with it under your own incorrect assumptions of my intentions and blatantly ignore many of the other opinions I put out there. Both of your arguments seem to be, in summary, that people should not live in a life full of fear, especially of things that do not occur on a significant or regular occasion. I AGREE!!!! If you continue to disagree with me agreeing with you, then I don't know what else to say.

With regard to the statistics I posted... you asked a general question - "how many pervs do you know" - so... I posted some stats. Of course this has nothing to do with the exact topic, (I never said it did) I posted it mainly because this post is discusing child abuse and it is Child Abuse Prevention Month... just some advocation that's all... and if the government & research statistics are all wrong, then I cannot be blamed for that. (By the way, a large amount of abuse goes unreported, so these statistics that you say are unreliable might be pretty close to dead on considering all of the unreported incidents... STILL no need to be fearful... good grief)

As for communication online, it is difficult to read people's emotions, body language, etc through typed words so one might not want to try and read into, or add to, the actual words that are being written by someone else. Throughout this thread I have never insulted either of your intelligence or made any presumptions about your intentions. However, apparently we are not of the same character.

Thread Posters:

As for the rest of you, I apologize for your having to deal with this banter. I usually allow stuff to roll off my back and take most everything with a grain of salt as I am aware the extreme range of personalites in the world. However, after working an extremely emotional 13 hour day with abused children, being the brunt of some people's frustrations with society over this particular issue.... well, I guess I let it get to me. I am done with this now. I have vented and will now return to my typical laid-back, mellow self. I hope most of you have a good sense of humor and used this as the lastest virtual version of Dr. Phil or some other rediculous talk show/ soap opera.

Lelasmama05:

I am glad, most of all, that you appear to have not let all of this affect you negatively... that last post with the added artistic embellishments... now that's funny! Seriously, though, your initial pictures were precious and I don't believe that anyone one here meant any harm or were in any way offended by them.

Oh, and by the way.... Lelasmama05, congratulations on your new 50 f/1.8! (somehow this was completely overlooked ) I am looking into getting either the 50 f/1.8 or f/1.4 - might come down to which one is one sale! How do you like it?

c_lawrence wrote in post #5249882
... And Titus, I'd like to thank you especially for your insults and request for specific examples, which I gave you, only for you to then take that information (which you asked for) and state that I was trying to use it as "a cause for widespread fear". ..

..Throughout this thread I have never insulted either of your intelligence or made any presumptions about your intentions. However, apparently we are not of the same character.
..

I don't believe I did, but if I've insulted your intelligence I apologize. I've tried to keep my responses civil.

And no, we are definitely not of the same character.

c_lawrence wrote in post #5249929
Oh, and by the way.... Lelasmama05, congratulations on your new 50 f/1.8! (somehow this was completely overlooked ) I am looking into getting either the 50 f/1.8 or f/1.4 - might come down to which one is one sale! How do you like it?

LOL! thank you! I really do love it! The only thing that is weird right now is I'm use to adjusting it to zoom in and what not... but I'll get use to that. Also it makes a really loud clunking noise when it focuses and it kind of scares me. I've been told that is just the lens though. I sure hope so... but it might get annoying.

MaxxuM- you know I think I will have to market them brithchers for your naked pictures

Lelasmama05 wrote in post #5246985
Is this better??

Ha!!

I was not the only one insulted, either.

Apology accepted... truce.

c_lawrence wrote in post #5249882
As for communication online, it is difficult to read people's emotions, body language, etc through typed words so one might not want to try and read into, or add to, the actual words that are being written by someone else. Throughout this thread I have never insulted either of your intelligence or made any presumptions about your intentions. However, apparently we are not of the same character.

Well said. Forums are rife with misunderstanding these days. I wasn't trying to be mean or argumentative and I totally understand your point of view. I'm a parent and my eldest daughter is a teenager *ug* and I also work with kids on a daily basis ages 11-15 and regrettably I cannot share the literally 1000s of pictures of them due to the rules (rightly so btw). I'm just tired of the fear factor the media has placed on us these days. If it isn't Gore telling us that the world is going to end soon to murderers and rapists roaming every street... Statistics just make me upset is all. In any case, no offense to you or your position and I hope you don't take any of this personally.

Thank you - truce.