My Parents were child pornographers

9-21-2009 National:

So were yours. At least, in the eyes of Wal-Mart employees, the police in Peoria, Arizona, and the Child Protective Services folks of that state, this is probably the case.

Lisa and Anthony Demaree lost their daughters, aged 1 1/2, 4, and 5, to child protective custody agents after a Wal-Mart employee blew the whistle on a few innocent bath photos of the children. It took the Demarees a month to get their children back. In the meantime, the children were subjected to a battery of psych and medical exams which all turned out to show no abuse or exploitation had taken place.

Lisa was put on probation from her job at a school for an entire year. Both of the parents were listed on a sex offender warning website. The State Assistant Attorney General and a Detective made false statements against the Demarees to their friends, family, and co-workers.

Is there a family photo album in the world that doesn't have pictures of little people making bubble bath beards? According to officials, the children were taken from their parents because the bath photos showed the girls in a partially nude state. Well, who throws their kids in the bath before their clothes are off. I grew up in an awkwardly large family and there were many occasions when we were small that we got tossed into a tub two and three at a time.

It was a silly time when laughing was the primary activity and clean happened mostly on an incidental basis. Talk about your Kodak moments! Does that make our parents child pornographers or sex offenders? It does not. No reasonable individual could view a pack of giggling, wet, nekkid kids being chased by harried, towel wielding moms in that kind of twisted light.

Anyone who sees a photo like that and types out a report to any local official is probably doing the typing with one hand. Those are the people who ought to be investigated rather than the parents.

Wal-Mart has a policy that requires their employees to report any photos they feel are inappropriate to the proper authorities without notifying the owners of the photos, or notifying the shutterbugs that the policy exists in the first place. This makes sense if the photos portray an actual crime.

On the other hand, when Wal-Mart appoints itself a vigilante force that has the right to inflict its personal moral standards on innocent families, it goes from a sensible and caring policy to a self-righteous pack of tattletales trying to get Johnny in trouble just because it can.

It's wise when there's a valid cause for concern to err in favor of protecting the child. Unfortunately, like so many other “watchdog” groups, child protection agencies have reached a witch-hunter frenzy. So, who will protect us from the child protection people who are damaging children? Who will protect the children from the child protectors?

Being a responsible, caring parent is the goal of all loving family heads. It's hard enough to manage on a realistic level. When the rabid become controlling forces in an already difficult and stressful situation, parenting isn't a love; it's a job.

Wal-Mart puts itself forth as a company that helps families save. Now we just need a company that will save families from Wal-Mart. ..Source.. by Lily Robertson