When I started this blog it was intended to be a journal of sorts to my son. It still is. I blog about other things occasionally but the majority of the content is about my son which includes lots of photos of him. I love sharing these photos and memories with y’all and it means even more to me that he will have this blog to look back on one day and see my thoughts and feelings concerning him. I was very nervous about sharing photos of Gray on the internet. Of course I had no problem sharing them on Facebook, but my profile is private (for all that’s worth). Here, everything is out there for everyone to see. Of course I don’t share everything that happens in our life. What you see is only a small portion but the fact is, the photos are still public. I never thought about watermarking my photos. I mean, who would want to steal photos of my little boy? And more importantly, WHY would they want to? For the record, this has NOT happened to us.

But it has happened to some people that I know. And it is so so unfortunate. A friend of mine had her daughter’s photos stolen off of Facebook (her profile is private btw) and a crazy lady posted them on a widely used website used by expecting mothers, The Bump. She claimed my friend’s daughter was actually HERS! WHAT?! It’s unbelievable and it’s something that you think would never happen to you. Then, a mother that I follow on Instagram, had her son’s photo stolen and posted all over Pinterest. She has a blog, alittlekingandiblog.com, with photos of her kiddos. The popular thing to do these days is to “Pin” something you see on a website that you like. While it may not seem like a big deal to have your photo “pinned”, you have to think about the person who took that photo and give them credit, especially if it is a photo of a CHILD, their child! So she dealt with the back lash of that widely pinned photo only to find out that some company had taken that same photo and plastered it all over a t-shirt, without her permission. And they are profiting from it. That. Is. Sick. It makes my stomach turn and I do not even know this mother personally, but I feel for her. It takes a lot of faith in people to put your life out there for the world to see and then some a-hole goes and steals photos of your kid. I mean come on people!

I do not understand why people do this and I don’t think I ever will. There isn’t a good explanation for this type of unreal behavior. So from now on I will be watermarking my photos.

This is something that I should have done when I first started this blog. There is a reason why professional photographers watermark their photographs, so people WON’T STEAL THEM and take credit for them. I am by no means a professional photog and I won’t ever claim to be, but these are photos of MY son and no one should ever think it is okay to steal them. I know that watermarking my photos may not stop some very determined looney from claiming them as their own but I would rather take the extra precaution and try to prevent it if I can. I realize that it is my choice to post photos of my child on the internet and I also realize that I am taking the chance that some sicko will take advantage of the fact that I am doing this so my son will have this record of his childhood and so that family members will always have a way of seeing what is going on in our life. And to those sickos, there is a nice place in Hell for you.

So my plea to anyone that posts photos of your children, your life, your dog, your anything, please please take the time to watermark your photos (place it close to the subject’s face). Make your profile’s private. If you don’t know someone, don’t accept them. I use Instagram as my “mommy outlet”. I don’t follow anyone that isn’t a mother or a family member and I don’t let anyone follow me that isn’t the same. Today’s technology is crazy. All the social networking apps I have all include some sort of geomapping feature and I make sure to turn that feature OFF. I don’t want anyone knowing where we are. There are even crazier people out there that will go further than stealing photos.

So please people, have some respect and quit being crazy and stealing other people’s photos! And please sane people, take precautions to protect what is yours. Ok, off my soapbox now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend people.