High Tech, Low Smarts
Too many people are afraid of all the wrong things. Andrew Kantor writes:

My son had a birthday party last week — he turned three. We invited about a dozen kids from his pre-school and elsewhere to a local spot where they could run and paint and eat and be kids. Naturally, as the proud father I took a lot of photos of the ruckus.

I posted these photos to Sam's website so all the parents — and our families back home — could see them. I post lots of photos to the site.

One of the parents, who isn't exactly the brightest light on the family Christmas tree, decided (incorrectly, but more on that in a second) that I was putting the kids in danger by posting their photos. The Internet is a scary place, after all, filled with all sorts of bad people.

She proceeded to call every parent whose kid was at the party to tell them what horrible people we were and how having their kids' images on the Web was a Bad Thing.

Keep in mind: We didn't post the kids' names, just their pictures.

Of course these people are parents, and when another parent called to say their children might be in danger, no amount of logic was going to change their minds. It's the same mechanism that convinces people to buy SUVs, thinking they're safer. They aren't, but that's marketing for you.

The photos-are-dangerous story was nonsense (and, to be honest, I think the woman who called everyone knew it). So does having photos on the Internet pose a threat? No, not the way we had them. Having a child's photo on a website, especially when you don't use a full name, doesn't put the child in danger — unless, of course, the parents often leave him unattended (more about that in a sec).

Now, if a teenage girl posts her photo, and her bio, and where she lives — that's another story. But a photo of a toddler? No.

In her former life, my wife was a crime reporter, and her beat was missing children. She's as paranoid as they come with this sort of thing and putting the photos up didn't bother her. But when you have someone sowing the seeds of paranoia, well, suddenly the Internet becomes scary. It's, you know, technology.

But here's the thing: That same woman who called every parent to scare them? She lets her four-year-old son run around in public places out of her sight. But that's not the Internet. That's not technology.

The parents who got scared about the photos? The doors are unlocked at the pre-school their kids attend. In fact, my wife found a homeless woman roaming the halls there once; she had walked right in. (And, by the way, the kids' photos and names were all over the walls there.)

Perspective: The chances of someone stumbling on their kids' photos, finding out where they lived, and going through the trouble of stalking them? Just about zero. Non-family abductions are usually crimes of opportunity when it comes to three-, four-, and five-year-old kids.

But the chances of someone walking off the street, into the pre-school, and snatching a child? It's still pretty darned low — but much greater relatively speaking.

When we asked one of the parents what she thought might happen, she responded that she just didn't think it was safe to have her child's photo "on the Internet." No reason, no logic. Just… because.