Today, I've actually been on Facebook! (Read my thoughts on Social Networking in 2013)
Earlier this afternoon, I noticed a friend post a message about someone adding photos of her children to a Facebook page without her authorisation. This was followed by several other friends posting almost the same thing.
Immediately, I went to the page to discover an automatically generated page titled Babies. This page shows some information from the wikipedia article for Babies, along with a very informative section that reads:
This Page is automatically generated based on what Facebook users are interested in, and not affiliated with or endorsed by anyone associated with the topic.
As well as the huge amount of people that have 'liked' the page (currently 333,000), there has been a large amount of people posting about the page, and spreading it.
The issue people have is about the pictures that are contained on the page. These pictures are actually pictures that have been shared with the viewer and that contain the text 'Baby' or 'Babies' in the caption. It seems most people don't realise that.
I've received messages stating that people are reporting seeing pictures they shouldn't be able to see (people they don't know), and even reports that a pervert / pedophile is stealing photos and posting them. This is not true.
Even if it the report about seeing pictures they shouldn't be able to see was true, you'd have to realise that many people choose to make their posts / pictures public.
When I viewed the page from a desktop computer, it also contained a link to a Malaysian movie, which informs you that the screenwriter's name is 'Baby'.
Lastly, for those of you that insist you haven't given Facebook permission to use the photo on a page, you need to realise that this is no different to seeing a friends picture on 'your' news feed. Yes, the news feed is also really just a generated page on Facebook's website.
Needless to say, don't worry about it! Your pictures of your children are as safe as they were yesterday.
Please feel free to share this post to those on Facebook, especially to those who are sharing the babies page or are concerned.
No comments:
Post a Comment