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Group Description
If you have no public photos you will need to either add Admin (CARF / L8o) as a contact, or turn public viewing on for your account. If admin cannot see your content you will instantly be removed from this group. If you are removed from the group and, subsequently, wish to return after complying with the above request, flickr mail me with your explanation. Thanks in advance for keeping this group family-friendly clean and fun. :`DAs children who spread both joy and sorrow constantly surround me in my daily work, innocent of their very existence, I realize how meaningful a child’s expression can be to most of us.
A miserable day can be turned into a delightful one, a sad moment into a happy one. A stressful day can be turned into a relaxing one and a tense moment into a relieving one.
All thanks to a few simple words or actions, or just the innocent expressions on the faces of our children. Children are the fuel of life, without them there is no future. A society who does not take care of its children will be left in a state of suffering, a state of social decay, which can only be reversed the moment we start taking care of our future.
For generations, children have been the targets of both good and evil, as they still are today. Since the discovery of the camera they have also been the popular targets of our lenses, unfortunately also for more dubious purposes. With the sudden explosion of the Internet we are witnessing one of the most shocking forms for child abuse caused by that very same instrument that brings so much joy to the Flickr Community.
For most of us the camera is a blessing and for most of us, so are the innocent children we choose to photograph.
So together, let’s strengthen the good reputation of our cameras by showing the world our fabulous CHILDREN'S PORTRAITS, formal or informal, singular or group. That is the nature of this group, where I hope you will all come share a selection of the incredible faces that make up our global village and who will eventually become the future citizens of this wonderful planet so Forsaken by Society
Look forward to this welcoming therapy, after all, it’s gratis so start posting! There are no set limits to how many children you choose to post as long as they are within the category.
Following suggestions arising on one of our threads, I thought it wise to adopt awfulsara’s observations when defining CHILDREN'S PORTRAITS for this group. As you will notice when browsing Sara’s photostream, she is a most competent portrait photographer and therefore I appreciate her suggestions.
Sara says:
Photographs added to the group pool must feature children (obviously) and be recognizable. What does that mean? For example, any image including a face is clearly recognizable, but so is a view from behind. Creative compositions, perspectives, and crops are encouraged, but detail shots of areas other than the face are not, unless they are included as part of a diptych or triptych that also shows identifying features of the little one.
We have now passed an astounding 23.000 members in this group and have more than 275.000 images in the CHILDREN'S PORTRAITS photostream. Hopefully you are all aware of our lovely Blog showcasing some of the images hidden away deep down there in that maze of thumbnails in our pool.
Please bookmark the Blog, UNITED CHILDREN OF THE WORLD and enjoy. There are so many wonderful images to choose from so I shall be adding new photos from our stream for your appraisal and as my time permits.
With such a diversity of photos in this group, many of you become aware of the different social realities of children around the world. Many wish to do something to help those less fortunate and Marília (Mylens) is one such person who has done something to help the street and other children at risk in our programme in Brazil. Please take your time to visit her Xmas Campaign group "Reaching for a Star - 2008", now in its fourth edition and offering important support to the Children At Risk Foundation's work with street and other children at risk in Brazil:
See this recent video presentation of CARF's work and join the group to offer your valued support for this important project. Click on the clown below:
Thanks for making our group such a great place to visit.
NB! If you wish to post other categories of children's pictures, please join an alternative group such as KIDPIX - WORLD KIDDIES or LITTLE PEOPLE.
To achieve our objectives we will be deleting images that seem more suitable for these groups, so don’t be surprised or angry if you suddenly disappear. Sorry!
Group Rules
**NOTE WELL**- YOU WILL BE IMMEDIATELY REMOVED IF YOUR FAVORITES ARE NOT VISIBLE TO ADMIN!
New Member?
If you have no public photos you will need to either add Admin (CARF / L8o) as a contact, or turn public viewing on for your account. If admin cannot see your content you will instantly be removed from this group. If you are removed from the group and, subsequently, wish to return after complying with the above request, flickr mail me with your explanation. Please keep this group clean and fun.
Please don't open a new thread just to say 'hi' - do that here: 'Say Hello!'
The same goes for announcements or info ads on new groups: Bulletin Board?
Thanks in advance for helping make all CHILDREN'S PORTRAITS discussion threads more
Member Friendly by adding ONLY the 'Small' size version of your
photos to the topics you choose to comment on!
To include the 'SMALL' sized version of your image..
1. Go to that photo's page in your photostream
2. Select the 'Zoom' [or 'All Sizes'] button located on the toolbar just above the photo
3. Select the 'Small' button link from the Download Page
4. Scroll down to the 'To link to this photo on other websites' area, and, right click inside
the FIRST html code box which says " Copy and paste this HTML into your webpage"
5. Copy the highlighted code, then, paste it into a new comment box in the discussion thread you are visiting.. :`)
CHILDREN'S PORTRAITS Group Business:
This group's admin endeavor to maintain a safe, family-friendly community. If, when you join this group..
1- you do not have your own Children's pictures to share, or
2- your Flickr profile / photostream / favorites / group pages contain highly questionable*, non Family-friendly material
you will be..
1- reported to Flickr staff via their "Report Abuse" tool, and
2- removed from CHILDREN'S PORTRAITS.
Any member may be removed from CHILDREN'S PORTRAITS if, after reviewing the information herein, you participate in witch hunts, presumptuous, unsubstantiated allegations, finger pointing and name calling. In this community (CHILDREN'S PORTRAITS), mutual respect must be upheld at all times. The wise Flickreenie will review member profiles and photostreams prior to joining or adding their photos to groups but, obviously, in a group as large as CHILDREN'S PORTRAITS, previewing every member would be incredibly labor intensive.
Please consider this to be your one and only warning: If you should stumble upon member activities that concern you, please contact our admins via flickrmail or email. Do not attempt to expose alleged perpetrators publicly via group discussions, as this is contrary to the healthy, safe atmosphere nurtured for our member base.
Specifically, take a moment to review, below, previous discussion on the 'pervert', 'pedophile' / 'paedophile' topic. If you feel you have concerns* which cannot be addressed by Flickr's "Report Abuse" tool, please email me directly - attempting to flesh out your suspicions publicly serves only to..
1- attract trolls, and
2- create a bevy of new contact information for those searching Flickr discussions via keyword qualifiers such as 'creep', 'perv', 'pedophile', etc.
Sincerely,
L8o
CHILDREN'S PORTRAITS Admin
*Highly Questionable Material: CHILDREN'S PORTRAIT admin monitor all the following behaviors. On accounts where 3 or more of these behaviors are combined, stringent action will be taken. (A cursive read of the discussion threads provided below will show that many suspicious accounts have long since been suspended or deleted):
- member of predominantly "18+", "adult only" type groups,
- no children's photos of their own,
- not posting their own child photos to the groups they have joined,
- have had free Flickr accounts for more than six months which are still void of profile, group subscriptions, contacts info and profile icon, whether they appear to be active on Flickr or not,
- photostream tags / titles with lewd, suggestive, vulgar and / or sexually explicit keyword qualifiers on images which are otherwise acceptable for this group,
- appropriate CHILDREN'S PORTRAITS content which is also posted to groups of an overtly sexual nature,
- favorites and comments only on either the children's photos of others, or lewd, suggestive, pornographic or adult themed content,
- favorites and comments on acceptable content which, as a favorites collection, is grouped amongst inappropriate content,
- a favorites collection comprised only of young girls / young boys, whether combined with explicit material or not,
- pirate, and upload to their photostream, only content from outside of Flickr (an attempt to validate, to unsuspecting group members, a temporary, visible Flickr alias worthy of membership in a children's group),
- pirate, and upload to their photostream, only content from from other Flickr members (an attempt to validate, to unsuspecting group members, a temporary, visible Flickr alias worthy of membership in a children's group,
- beyond favoriting collections of photos of
1- young girls.. they are otherwise inactive within Flickr's community
2- young boys
3- photos of questionable character
Additionally, recognizing that Flickr is a global community consisting of diverse cultures and attitudes, action taken should not be construed as moral judgement, but rather in compliance to group mandate.
Alleged Pedophilia: Previous discussion:
"When someone is faving pictures of your kids, I always recommend worried owners of those children's images to check out the saved collection of favourites by that particular member, to better identify the nature of their preferences. If the collection is only young girls / young boys, combined with explicit material or not, and the persons in question are otherwise inactive members (not using Flickr services according to their terms - i.e. not posting images themselves and otherwise little or no really transparent activity other than only faving pictures of questionable character), then report the member to Flickr staff through the "Report Abuse" link at the bottom of any Flickr page. The Flickr team are most certainly the best authority on deciding whether or not a member has questionable/abusive activity or not as they handle this kind of thing on a daily basis and try to keep the community a safe enough place for their users, whom they depend on to survive. Usually this kind of user will be removed once the abuse team receive your complaint (although you can expect the same user back under a new identity as quick as they were removed). Unfortunately this is an ongoing battle in almost any online community and requires the constant reporting actions of other members so facilitate the abuse team's work. Remember that Flickr now has a couple of million members so things are almost impossible for any abuse team to control without the members using the correct reporting mechanisms provided.
Therefore, always use the "Report Abuse" link at the bottom of any Flickr page."
Thank You.
Gregory - Group Admin and Founder.
original post November 2007"I really appreciate your efforts to expose just some of the unfortunate sides of a photo-sharing website such as Flickr, but I would ask you all to please stop opening new threads to repeat this never-ending flow of information and making our group a paradise for those people who come to such threads just to look for those links to expand their own strange circle of contacts. Instead simply report such activities (as those you are trying to expose here) to the Flickr staff and they will deal with things in a suitable way. This is definitely the most appropriate channel to diminish this type of activity.
Once again, I am locking the thread and will continue to do so if members carry on using this group to alert all the people out there who have bad intentions.
Thank you!
Gregory - Group Admin and Founder. "
original post December 2006"Thank you Sara!
It takes a serious photographer to express a serious opinion about children in photography, which is what this group is about.
Once again I think enough has been said on this constantly destructive subject and that most of our members would prefer to see you all using some of that wasted energy on the more positive reasons for our existence as a group.
The thread is now locked and hopefully enough has already been said on this subject to save us continuing to lock new threads that simply repeat what has already been discussed over and over again.
Thank you! - Gregory (Admin / Founder)"
original post December 2006"These kind of threads are becoming very tiring..................
Please just report suspicious activities as those you are trying to expose here, to the Flickr staff and they will deal with things in a suitable way. This is definitely the most appropriate channel to diminish this type of activity in a web community such as Flickr.
Thank you!
Gregory - Group Admin and Founder.
NB! Please read my reasons at the bottom of the the last locked thread."
original post December 2006
see also"Let's move on!
Read all that has already been said about this subject in other locked threads and report suspected "abuse" through the correct Flickr channels so that the experienced Flickr Admins can take the necessary actions.
If I read more "sicko" talk based on personal judgement, I will simply make use of the thread locking tool so that we can move on to photo-sharing within our own personal limits.
If anyone wishes to be the judge of other people's actions, then by all means go ahead, but report your findings to Flickr staff instead of sharing your judgements with the entire community, including your suspects.
Thanks once again, for a peaceful group!
Gregory - Group Admin and Founder."
original post December 2006"This is a problem throughout the entire internet, of which Flickr is simply a small world in a much, much bigger one, where such problems have long been out of control. The Flickr community reflects the World we are all part of and I believe Flickr realizes this and have therefore incorporated the necessary tools to deal with this kind of unsuitable behavior in their community, to try to keep it "clean".
I think it is not up to me or any other member of a group to bring down judgement on others, even though we may feel uncomfortable about their behavior. Flickr has a "Report Abuse" link at the bottom of every page, where anyone can report this kind of questionable behavior and I recommend that you all make good use of it. Their experienced team judgement is probably far more selective and effective than each of ours individually, but they do depend on the members of this community to report such things so as to become aware of where to look, reminding you all that their are now millions of members in our little world, which is obviously a difficult task for anyone to deal with.
Whenever I feel the need to share whatever I feel uncomfortable with in this community or suspect "abnormal" behavior that clearly is against Flickr's terms of use, then I simply report it through the proper channels and usually there are some pretty quick results as you will all notice if you check back on many of those you mention as questionable; they are no longer active on Flickr because they have been removed by Flickr staff due to the ongoing reporting through their "Report Abuse"" link.
Gregory J. Smith
Social Entrepreneur & Founder
The Children At Risk Foundation - CARF"
original post November 2007
Additional Info
- This group will count toward the photo’s limit (60 for Pro members, 30 for free members)
- Members can post 80 things to the pool each month.
- Accepted media types: Photos, Videos
- Accepted content types: Photos, Art, Screenshots, Virtual Photography
- Accepted safety levels: Safe