HOULTON, Maine — Nearly everyone with a digital camera or device has snapped a photo and either posted it on a social media site or e-mailed it to someone.
It seems like a simple and relatively harmless thing to do. But what happens when the photograph is more intimate in nature? Sometimes the person sending the photo instantly regrets it. Others may discover months, or even years, down the road that the photo they sent to someone they trusted has found its way onto the Internet for the entire world to see.
It is not something that only happens to celebrities. It can, and has, happened to people in Houlton and many other communities in Aroostook County.
In recent months, there have been at least three complaints filed at the Houlton Police Department by woman who found intimate photos of themselves uploaded to the Internet.
“There are inherent dangers of having photos on the Internet,” said Houlton Police Detective Kris Calaman. “We have had three cases of women of legal age having explicit photos of them uploaded to a photo sharing site. The photos were likely uploaded by a boyfriend or husband.”
Calaman said both men and women are at risk anytime a person takes an intimate photo of them as there is always the possibility that the photo can wind up on a website. He cautioned that any time a person uses a webcam to chat with another person, a screen capture of that image could be taken and used just like a photograph.
“Once it is out there, it is almost impossible to get your image off the Internet,” Calaman said. “Somebody can copy and paste that image and the next thing you know, that photo is on a website in Russia or who knows where else. It happens.”
While none of the complaints filed at the Houlton Police Department thus far have involved photos of minors, parents should be proactive when it comes to their children using the Internet and monitor all aspects of what their child is doing on the web.
“Don’t let your children use webcams on their computers, tablets or iPads without parental consent or supervision,” Calaman said. “Parents need to monitor what their kids are doing on these devices. They need to know who their child is chatting with or texting to.”
Calaman said a growing trend is young girls, between the ages of 12-18, being coerced into sending photos to someone they met online, who might not be who they say they are. Images can also be used in cyber bullying cases.
“It may not even be a provocative photo,” Calaman said. “Maybe your child just took a goofy photo and posted it. Someone else could use that photo as a way of cyber-bullying.”
Image misappropriation is another common problem, he said. Image misappropriation happens when a person posts a photo of himself or herself on the Internet and that image is downloaded by an outside group and used in an advertising campaign or in some other manner without their knowledge.
“Your child or family photos can be misappropriated and used in a very negative way in an ad campaign,” he said. “It could be used to lure someone to a website that you would not want to be associated with.”
Calaman added there are resources online that are available for a fee that can check the Internet for any images a person owns, but even then, there is no guarantee all copies of an image can be removed. He said Google Alert is one particular free site that can search for a person’s name and notify a person whenever a new post about them is made.
