As a photographer, I can truly empathize with this article and while I am not a parent, plenty of my friends have children and have asked me to photograph them. Most parents take hundreds of photographs of their children in the first two or three years of their life, with digital the number is now several thousand. It is not uncommon for them to snap photos daily because at that young age, subtle changes happen often.

One of the more common photos parents will take is of their children in a bath tub (often with their spouse or siblings), running around the house naked after just getting out of the tub or sitting on the toilet for the first time. Usually these are kept for the family and occasionally for that first time you go on a date to embarrass you. Things are slowly changing.

The FBI has issued blanket requests to photo processing labs and computer repair shops in some cities to be on the lookout for pictures of kids in compromising positions, urging them to call the authorities whether they’re sure or not about a picture’s legality. The big national chains that have photo processing labs — Costco, CVS, Rite-Aid, and Wal-Mart — have company policies that compel them to notify the police about any criminal activity they see in customers’ photos. And when children are involved, they’re more than willing to err on the side of caution.

Makes sense, right? One would think so, however it is nearly impossible to draw a line in the sand to what is or is not worth calling about, even top executives at major drug store chains who process photographs states that this is near impossible to force.

Where is the line drawn and at what point should the authorities be called?

Source with more information: Popular Photography

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