Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Should I Be Concerned

That when one does an MSN live search for Bret Michaels filter:face, right there, on the first page in all her glory is this:


****Insert photo of Daughter wearing cowboy hat looking like Bret Michael's offspring****


Perhaps comparing my daughter to a guy who travels the country in a jacked up tour bus full of women who make Pamela Anderson look like The Virgin Mary was not such a wise move.

This Mommyblogging PSA is brought to you by a mom who posted photos of her children on the Internet and is now wondering how to get them all off? She is just a tad bit creeped out and, fully aware of her non-technical or computer savvy way of thinking, she would really like to know how these things happen? Learn from her mistakes, and any advice in the comment section!

26 comments:

S said...

WOW. Umm, maybe I should be worried too, considering that I've posted plenty of pictures of both my boys.

I think I preferred it when my head was in the sand. ;)

Valarie Lea said...

Hmmmmm that is a little worrisome (sp)

Molo said...

I don't know sis. I tried the search, and only saw shots of what appeared to be the second coming of Axel Rose, but with a silly hat sometimes. Didn't see the little one anywhere. But maybe you removed it?

Photos can be taken, snatched, played with all over the internet, and yeah it can certainly be a concern. I don't know much about securing your images, and it's definitely creepy/concerning if they are being misused...so I'd watch out for it. Especially considering how popular your blog is! But you know, it's just a picture too...

There are similar issues with copyright images too-esp with art work like in my case. But i figure if anyone steals my images, well imitation is the ultimate form of flattery, right? And I'll sue the crap out of them.

Jen said...

When people ask me why I'm reluctant to put up pictures of my kids on my blog, I think I'm going to point them to this post. Actually come to think of it, I may write up a post and link to this if it is ok w/ you. Thanks for the PSA though. :)

carrie said...

Ryan, she is there in the 6th row - you have to scroll a tiny bit.

I'm not really sure how to feel. Part of me is disgusted. Part of me is saying "it's ok, it's only a picture," like my brother pointed out. I don't know how to remove it. Does anyone?

I've just never had this happen before. And, it's my baby we're talking about. It wouldn't matter which one of them it was.

Molo said...

Oh don't get me wrong, it is scary, and weird, and disconcerting...and maybe dangerous too.

Although, just for debates sake, do you think if you had searched for say...Angelina Jolie and your picture happened to come up, would you feel flattered or weirded out?

(I know it's not really the same thing, just food for thought)

I'll email you some more productive ideas about this...

Ashley said...

I've always been a tad bit hesitant myself, but I still post pics of them.

I can't help being proud. It would be the same way if their pic was in a newspaper for an accomplishment. Weirdos would still see it.

There was a good post on BlogHer today regarding this exact problem.

Joleine said...

Is it bad that my first thought was "why is she searching for that, and something so broad to begin with?" ... yeah probably..

That is weird though that the picture comes up with that search.. I wish I knew more about blogger to tell you how to remove it :(

Anonymous said...

I am not sure Carrie, but if you do find out any information, if you could pass it along I would love to see.. Thanks so much.

carrie said...

Joleine,

I wasn't searching for Bret Michael's pics! I found the link through my sitemeter, which I keep my eye on from time to time.

It is amazing to see how people find you and I think it's important to have this software installed so you can have a record of visits. AND - that's how you find the funny google searches too - it's all right there, a complete record, IP addresses and all!

carrie said...

Ashley - I'd love the link to the BlogHer post if you can remember it!

LindaJ said...

Delete the post off of your blog and it will be gone.

JMom said...

Basically it's out there forever (I work in online marketing) However, you can remove it and the next time your site is scanned by each search engine, it will pick up the newest version of your site. There is a way to view the old version by clicking "cached" when you view results, but most people have no real reason to do that. My blog was found by some creepy looking for yoga excrement - that freaked me out too!

flutter said...

I opened my mouth and JMom's voice came out and now I have nothing of worth to add. Damn.

Momisodes said...

I've been trying to delete my kiddo's pics in hope that over time google will update the links, etc. Ugh, that would creep me out too :(

Anonymous said...

someone found my site by searching rashes on google images and there was my son. I guess I had written something in the body of the post and there was his picture.

Unknown said...

Basically, anything you put online in a searchable location can be found if the searcher is dedicated enough. However, as has been pointed out, if you delete the picture it will eventually wash out of most search caches within a month or so.

That is one of the reasons the only pictures of me that you find online are from the news papers - and papers are so off target with their labeling that it almost never connects my real name to the picture. I'd challenge anyone to find the pictures and connect them to me even though they have been in papers as diverse as the LA Times and New York Times.

On the other hand, I tend to be agnostic about pictures and other information if the trail connecting it to a real name and other identity information is missing. The picture without connecting information is pretty much a non-worry.

alice c said...

Carrie - don't worry too much but treat it as a wake up call. Delete the picture so that it is not available for live searches and remember that other pictures will be added to the Internet over time which will be higher on the search list because they are more recent. I am very careful about pictures and word combinations in my posts and watch the referral data like a hawk. As a result I have only had to remove one post.

carrie said...

Thank you everyone so far...I'm still trying to process how I feel about this.

I am mindful, however, that her photo wasn't used in anything too horrifying at least and what? Someone searching for a pic of Bret Michaels will find this blog - OK, I guess they already did. How concerned should I be?

I'm with Slouchy, I much prefer my head in the sand. But now that it's out - I need to deal with it. And it's not necessarily this link that may concern me...

Kyla said...

I really need to start watermarking my photos at the very least. I know they are floating around the Internet, without my control....but I still like to include them in my posts, ya know? But it is a big decision. Another of my blog friends just found out her family photo had been pulled from the Internet and used in a pamphlet in Australia! Crazy, right?

Becky at lifeoutoffocus said...

been there done that. i took a lot of pics off post by post and then i just made the thing private. less stressful that way.

The Coffee Lady said...

people come by blogs for a host of reasons, but I imagine if they don't find what they want they won't stay. Most people find my blog because they search for information on crafts, and find me drivelling on about how I don't do any. If you look at the 'time spent on site', they spend about .001 of a second before hightailing it out of there because they find nothing of use. Whoever searched for the pic probably moved on very quickly.

However I have found myself doing what I've seen others do on blogs, which is showing their children obscured, eg the backs of their heads, or the corners of them, and not their whole face. Just because, I guess, I don't put my own photo up, so I shouldn't do it to them.

monstergirlee said...

I've been thinking I'd like to add a watermark to my photos. That might help should someone want to steal them.
I hope they're not being used for anything malicious. No advice tho, sorry.

Nauntie Lush said...

I have no clue how to remove them. I think that the watermarking is a good idea, although, I have no clue how the heck to do that. I am lucky the darn things get downloaded off the camera and on to the computer!

Plus they could more easily follow us home from the grocer and stalk us/him than they could from the blog. So I don't worry about it too much. I mean heck if Heather Armstrong can blog about Leta so much, and no one has done anything to her, we should be fineish too!

Julienne said...

Someone may have already said this. If so, forgive me, I've been up for about 30 hours now.
It looks like the post is a result of the text in the post "Bret Michaels is not her daddy" and "Rock of Love". So the easiest way to remove it, is to pull the post. At least the pic links to your site so no one has saved it and added it to their site - that would be uber-creepy.
I wouldn't worry about it too much.

carrie said...

Ok- just to see what happens, I removed the post. All of a sudden, I was getting tons of hits from that photo through google...somehow. So I'll see what happens, maybe I'll put it back up and see the impact and then I can let you all know how it went down!

Thank you for all the support and advice.