Ever since I posted Ashby's potty training blog posts, I've had an unusually large amount of disturbing phrases in the 'Search Keywords' section (under Traffic Sources). When I look under the 'Week' tab this is what is displayed:
Little Girls Panties--searched 10 times
Little Girl Potty--searched 7 times
Girl Wearing Pull Ups--searched 5 times
Big Girl Undies--searched 4 times
Big Girl Naked Potty--searched 3 times
Little Girl With Her Underwear--searched 3 times
At first, I was thinking maybe people were getting tips/advice on how I had potty trained Ashby. Or I know a couple of bloggy friends had asked where I got the Elmo potty seat, so I was thinking maybe people were inquiring about that. Well, Ashby has been potty trained for almost 3 weeks now & even today I've had 11 searches about something related to potty training, little girl in panties, naked girl, etc.
This Is Not Right!!!
So now of course I start thinking to myself, 'is some disturbed person looking at pictures of my daughter online?' I know that there are a lot of sick people in this world, but it disgusts me to think they are looking at, what I thought were innocent pictures of Ashby, and doing who knows what with them. This is just SICK & WRONG!
I pray that I am looking way too into this, but my mommy instinct says that I am not & I need to do something about this NOW!
So, this is when I come to you dear blog readers. How do I go about protecting my pictures? Is there a way to watermark my pictures so that they are protected from nasty people on the internet? Is there a certain program that you would recommend?
Or, is this just the risk I take for having an 'open' blog? Is the only way to prevent this from happening is to make my blog private? I really don't want to go that route, but at the same time, I don't want to have to worry every time I post a picture of my daughters that some weirdo will be doing something inappropriate with it.
I created this blog for me, my family, and my friends and it never even crossed my mind that creepy people in the world would be looking at pictures of my daughters in that way. Call me naive, but I just never even thought that this could or would happen. Unfortunately, now I do. And it makes me angry, mad, sad, & disgusted!!!!
Any & all advice that you have on this matter would be much appreciated.
This makes me sick and makes my stomach turn. I know you don't want to make it private but at this point I would risk keeping it public. Sounds like someone checks out your blog to see your little one and the only way to stop it and to not give anyone else access. They can even be reading this now and saving whatever pictures they liked just in case you do go private. :( I'm so sorry you have to deal with this.
ReplyDeleteI would make it private too Jessica. Sick people out there and we have to do what we have to do to keep our little ones safe!
ReplyDeleteJ, that is exactly why when I created my blog that I made it private. Then you have approve anyone that wants access to your site. It is totally sick and wrong that people are out there searching these things, but for the safety of our kiddos, I would make the change to private. Plus, many of us that follow you already have the web address and can access your site.
ReplyDeleteI have two little girls myself, and this just makes me so worried. You asked about watermarking your pictures, and while I think that's a great idea, it unfortunately won't deter the sick people from doing whatever they choose to do with them. There is a way to "lock" your photos; right-clicking, and therefore saving photos to a hard drive, is prohibited. I'm not sure how to set this up. I know Katie at Loves of Life has her page set up this way. Perhaps she can give you some insight.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think that all blogs with kids on it should be private! I think that it is a shame that people are sick but it is a reality. There isn't anything that you post on the internet is ever "safe". With a husband in the computer industry I know all too well how easy it is to find things that were never meant to be seen. I can't tell you haw many times I have heard "once it is on the internet you can never take it back". I would be super careful what pictures you post especially of the girls! My rule of thumb is that if I won't take them in public the way they look in the picture I won't post it on the internet either! Like Mom always says, "If you have to question it don't do it!" Amazing how our mother's words work in almost all situations!
ReplyDeleteWow, Jessica! That is creepy! I am not sure how you can see how people were searching your blog, but it's good that you checked. I also struggle with this issue as I don't know how to make my blog private so it is public. Anything you find out, let us all know!
ReplyDeleteColleen
Kelly did a post about adding a watermark to her photos and listed a couple of sites that can help you: http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/. I don't have the link for the exact post, but it was several months ago.
ReplyDeleteJess