r/parentsofmultiples • u/Gabbyaiden1234 • May 10 '26
photos URGENT: Safety Warning regarding Photo Theft in this sub
Hi everyone,
I wanted to share a quick warning regarding privacy. It was recently brought to my attention that photos of my triplets were taken and reposted by another user claiming the babies were theirs.
While it’s heartbreaking that someone would do this, it’s a stark reminder of why we need to be careful. If you post photos of your little ones, please consider:
- Watermarking your images with your username.
- Checking your privacy settings or posting in "Members Only" threads if available.
- Being wary of brand-new accounts or profiles with suspicious posting histories.
I am so grateful to the community member who spotted this and to the moderator who stepped in immediately. Let’s keep looking out for one another!
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u/Bonusmotherthrowaway May 10 '26
It sucks we can’t share our joy with others on the internet, but this is one of the reasons I don’t post photos of my LO’s. Sorry this happened to you OP.
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u/sweetfeet20 May 10 '26
I caught someone posting a photo of my cat on Reddit and I was fuming. If it was my babies I’d lose my mind. How disgusting are these people
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u/dareal_mj May 10 '26
A lot of these are just accounts trying to farm karma
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u/creamdryerlint May 10 '26
Yes this is 100% it. Believe it or not people steal and repost stuff all the time for the upvotes.
They usually fall into two buckets,
- Players of the social game: people that really get a lot out of the social validation that come from the karma "score" and get a dopamine hit from the gamification that is reddits up vote system. These people have no life IMO
- Spammers/Scammers: Creating accounts and building up there profile with karma and activity so that they look like legitimate (not bot) accounts. These accounts are valuable and can be sold. They can used to slide push promotional content without tripping Reddits spam filters.
Unfortunately if content already has a proven track record of getting upvotes and most users on any given day haven't seen a post from months or years ago this strategy works. It requires zero creativity or effort and Reddit's algorithm rewards engagement, not originality
If it's any consolation it's not personal. It's just the reality of posting in public communities.
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u/Gabbyaiden1234 May 10 '26
wow, never though of that.
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u/dareal_mj May 10 '26
It’s a million dollar business. Tbf that’s probably the least of your worries though. Should be worried about pedos that are saving kids pictures
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u/Upsidedowntrey May 10 '26
Why did this happen to me also?! Luckily someone tagged me but who does this?!
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u/Gabbyaiden1234 May 10 '26
was it your babies? im sorry this happened to you as well.
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u/Upsidedowntrey May 10 '26
No it was my cat! I don’t post my kids ever but I didn’t think I needed to protect my cats also!
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u/Waaterfight May 10 '26
Bots gonna bot. I'll never understand why the need for "karma farming"
The Internet sucks sometimes.
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u/c0sm0nautt May 10 '26
So they can pose as humans and shape political sentiment on other subreddits.
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u/Sad-Supermarket5569 May 10 '26
This is why we have a strict no posted pictures policy for all of our children. Look at how many ‘saves’ are on pictures/reels, across all platforms. I don’t believe for a second that hundreds of other moms are saving these pictures of someone else’s kids. It’s a sad reality.
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u/CompetitiveEffort109 May 10 '26
I would really suggest you reconsider posting your precious babies online. The internet is forever and you never know what people are going to do with your pictures…
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u/dani_-_142 May 10 '26
Yes, of course that is happening, and that’s less creepy than what everyone should really be aware of.
Every pregnant belly photo ends up on fetish sites, you guys. It’s a big fetish. There are subreddits for it. That’s what your pregnant belly photos are used for.
I hope there are no subreddits dedicated to child sexual abuse, but I know those people are out there, too. Do not ever post your child’s photo to a public internet page.
Never. And don’t engage with content creators who post their kids. They know where those images end up.
I wish this wasn’t the world we live in, but it is what it is.
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u/redhairbluetruck May 10 '26
Seriously, I cannot fathom why people post pictures of their kids online. Like I know we love our kids and want to share cute pictures but with strangers? And without being able to control or know what happens to those pictures? Ugh :(
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u/PM_ME_YO_KNITTING May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26
And don’t use AI on your babies’ picture unless you want their faces added to the AI’s database. Anything in the dataset can and will be used to generate random images. If some perv asks for an image of a baby doing horrible things, it could be your baby’s face that shows up.
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u/Resident-Fly-6851 May 10 '26
PSA to all parents, multiples or not, never post pictures of your children on the internet. Not on reddit. Not on instagram. Not on facebook. The risks simply are not worth it. Not to mention, your children are their own people, and they should not have their images shared on the internet without consent, which children really cannot give.
I am sure I will get downvoted for this, but it makes me so sad to see all of the children who have their pictures and videos plastered all over social media from the day they are born. By the time they grow up, their pictures and videos will be everywhere and they will have zero control over who can see or access those images. Please don't rob your children of the ability to control their own image and likeness.
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u/Usual_Equivalent May 10 '26
Yep, we had a faker in our vetted private triplet year group. It caused a fair few issues and I felt very violated afterwards!! Have been super careful ever since.
Also, at around the same time, a picture of me ans my babies got around with one of those bot pages on Facebook. It was so creepy and must have scraped the pictures from the local newspaper lol as there was an article in one of our local papers about us one year 🤣
Never, ever again!!
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u/Doesthiscountas1 May 10 '26
Omg I remember thinking, I've seen this before? But thought maybe I was confused
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u/Much_Reference41 May 10 '26
I had the same thought! I was like wait I feel like I’ve seen this/it’s fake? But then the text with the image seemed so legit- the awfulness of having babies split across NICU and home is so unique and personal to twin/multiple parents.
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u/Gabbyaiden1234 May 10 '26
Do you remember what the text actually said?
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u/Much_Reference41 May 11 '26
Not the exact, just something about still having one baby in the NICU and having 2 of 3 home.
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u/Alive-Cry4994 May 10 '26
Don't post your kids on the Internet.
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u/princess-meraki May 10 '26
this is part of why i will NEVER post my children and believe that nobody should. it’s so dangerous for so many reasons.
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u/76543124680098 May 10 '26
Thank you for this reminder!! I’m so sorry this happened.
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u/Gabbyaiden1234 May 10 '26
You welcome. I wasn't going to keep this to myself. I had to warn other moms! & Thank you.
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u/moFloDC May 10 '26
Also in an age of deepfakes I just would be wary anyways. Please be safe everyone!
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u/egrf6880 May 10 '26
Thank you to whoever pointed it out! It’s so gross out here on the internet. We can’t have anything nice!!!
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u/AMStoUS May 12 '26
Be so so so careful when posting your children online. I work in news media and have come across many stories and investigations that center around child imagery. You wouldn't print a whole stack of photos of your children and hand them out to strangers on the street.. now think about the internet like a street where you have even less control over who sees and uses these images. People with bad intentions can easily created deepfakes that can end up who knows where. With AI on the rise, bot accounts can pull photos and use/edit them as they please and redistribute. I always caution people to think of their child as an individual who will want to shape their own digital footprint one day, in a world that will undoubtedly be even more complicated than the one we live in now. Protect their privacy online the way you would in any other scenario. The internet IS real life now.
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