Blogging and social media are so intertwined in our daily lives we think that posting in a so-called private Facebook group or Instagram means our information will remain just that… forgetting thousands of others are also seeing that photo, video or comment.
I’ve seen countless posts in Facebook groups become “news” stories on the Daily Mail, quickly followed by group members raging about how they shared the information in a private group and the journalist should be censured. “But this group isn’t private”, I smugly thought to myself. It has 25,000 members!!
So why was I so shocked when someone took my ultrasound from this post and used it to join a twin pregnancy group on Facebook?
Because I FOUND OUT ABOUT IT.
But it wasn’t just me. It was my babies as well. My cub protection instincts were in overdrive along with the postpartum hormones flooding my baby-ravaged brain.
The fact someone took note of my name (on the ultrasound) and went to the effort of creating a fake Facebook profile and pretty convincing background story to sell themselves to group admins was creepy as hell.
The alert admin who contacted me about the fake profile was apologetic, and explained they came across 2-3 such profiles each week. People’s motivations varied – some were collecting material for pregnancy fetish groups, others had suffered a bereavement but still wanted to “experience” twin pregnancy through others. Some just did it for kicks.
I’m pretty sure I didn’t share any belly shots in the group, but it kinda weirds me out to think of someone getting freaky to a pic of my unnaturally stretched and ridiculously uncomfortable multi-baby belly home.
The experience has been a sharp reminder to be careful about how and where I share images of my children. Even in settings where a level of relative privacy is presumed.
As soon as you hit publish, your content can and will end up somewhere it’s not meant to be.
How Life Has Changed 