Facebook photo raid: Parents, show common sense in a time of uncommon anxiety
The Facebook photo raid didn't need to happen. This isn't about gun rights, it's about common sense. The Facebook photo raid is a sign of societal anxiety. Parents, don't stoke the fire.
Facebook photo raid: This undated photo provided by Shawn Moore shows his son Josh holding a rifle his father gave him for his 11th birthday, at their home.
Shawn Moore/AP
When a New Jersey father posted a picture of his young son toting a rifle he鈥檇 received for his birthday in order to follow a family hunting tradition, the boy was nearly lost to his family when he was caught in the social media crosshairs. This is not about gun laws, but what we, as parents, are choosing to fire-off to our social media sites that could make our kids and families targets for a very gun-shy society that鈥檚 become trigger-happy about reporting kids and parents to authorities.
I know I wrote about a little girl in Pennsylvania getting into trouble for pointing a Hello Kitty bubble-blowing toy at another child and saying, 鈥淚鈥檓 going to shoot you!鈥� When we have people pointing fingers at kids who point finger-guns, it鈥檚 really just common sense not to put our families in harm鈥檚 way by posting photos and stories that could easily be misunderstood聽to our social media feeds.
In just such a posting, according to聽The Associated Press,聽Shawn Moore uloaded a photo of his son Josh holding a rifle he gave him for his 11th birthday, at their home in Carneys Point, N.J. The聽photo shows Josh, a little boy, in cammo, smiling with what looks like a military-style assault rifle, but is actually just a .22-caliber copy.聽This doesn鈥檛 blow bubbles.
The Moore family says this photo, posted on Facebook, led the state鈥檚 child welfare agency to the family鈥檚 house on March 15 demanding to be let inside to inspect their guns. It鈥檚 truly not a leap of logic to see how that picture being posted on Facebook by the father snowballed into a mess.
Mr. Moore is terribly upset about the ensuing raid and I would be as well. In fact I would be angry and terrified that people would misjudge my child and my parenting as the result of a Facebook picture. However, the fact is that no matter how defiant I often feel about the nanny society that has risen as the direct result of numerous children being murdered and wounded by gun-toting classmates, I also take great pains to try to understand and thus not inflame it.聽聽
When posting a picture of your child on Facebook can result in child abuse hotlines being called and the child nearly being taken by authorities, it鈥檚 time for parents to change our social media habits. We can be angry and shout about not bowing to social pressure, but the bottom line is that this is one more way we must move with the times and not against them in order to protect our families.
I have spent countless sessions with my nine-year-old son trying to recalibrate the expressions he uses and things he says in, around, or after school. I don鈥檛 like having to bow to social pressure either, but frankly when the media blew up the fact that the Sandy Hook shooter had Asperger's, every parent of an autistic child that I know called me to get a consensus on how to handle things socially. We worried that our kids could no longer say, 鈥淚鈥檓 mad at you!鈥� to another child, raise his voice, or do anything to show emotion that would not have us out of school and in court.
It鈥檚 not fair, but as we so often tell our kids, 鈥淟ife鈥檚 not fair. Sometimes we just have to do things we don鈥檛 like.鈥澛�