Internet Safety News
Downside to Online Dating (And Photographs on the Web!)
by Anne Collier
"Laura" has good reason to tell people not to put photographs of themselves online because 18 months ago she placed an ad with a photograph in an online personals site for one month.1 "Since then, her photograph has been stolen and used in dozens of fake personals ads soliciting hard-core sex and pornography."2 Lawyers, however, aren't interested in taking her case, because Laura couldn't prove actual financial harm, and, without subpoenas to perform address traces at Internet Service Providers, privacy advocates couldn't stop the anonymous criminals.3 Research shows that 34 million people have at least taken a peek at the Internet's "dating scene."4 Please note that the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children strongly urges families to never post personal information or photographs on the Internet.
1Bob Sullivan. "Her picture
became a porn ad." MSNBC.com. November 11, 2002,
http://www.msnbc.com/news/832518.asp.
2Ibid.
3Ibid.
4Ibid.
Anne Collier is editor of the SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter and president of NetFamilyNews.org, a nonprofit news service for parents and teachers of online kids.
