Via Digg: They called me a child pornographer
If you want to read the full salon.com article and don’t have membership, it’s also been conveniently posted as a Digg comment.
This story is about a family in the USA who went for a camping holiday. They did all the usual things: campfires, fishing, digging holes for toilets. In all, their children probably had a great time, and learnt a lot about nature, including how to care for it.
As usual during the trip, we took several photos. Because I forgot my digital camera, I bought a disposable camera at a gas station on the way to the campground. I took pictures of the kids using sticks to beat on old bottles and cans and logs as musical instruments. I took a few of my youngest daughter, Eliza, then age 3, skinny-dipping in the lake, and my son, Noah, then age 8, swimming in the lake in his underwear, and another of Noah naked, hamming it up while using a long stick to hold his underwear over the fire to dry. Finally, I took a photo of everyone, as was our camping tradition, peeing on the ashes of the fire to put it out for the last time. We also let the kids take photos of their own.
These photos, once developed, would bring this family to its knees and affect them in ways you probably cannot imagine. One of the employees at the place the photos were developed called the police due to the questionable contents in some of the photos. This was probably not a bad thing for him to do. What followed was an onslaught from the police and social services. The family were guilty until proven innocent, and once, finally, the case was closed (with the details kept on record) there was no apology or support.
I strongly recommend you read this article. Some of you might want a box of tissues handy.