"How can we expect children to grow up into adults with dignity, self-esteem and modesty if we think it’s cute to photograph them in poses that destroy those attributes?"

You mention those three things as if they're some kind of holy trinity. If by modesty you mean true humility, an understanding of one's true self worth, I'm with you. But I rather suspect you just mean prudery, in which case I would direct you to the nearest Saudi Arabian embassy.

"I bet if the wives had gone along on this camping trip there would have been a bit more modesty and decorum exhibited by all concerned."

I agree: it's high time that the rules of modesty and decorum be extended to private family camping trips in the woods.

Perhaps once we're through with the war on terror, we can turn our satellites and other spying technology on our forests to make sure that no one's skinny dipping.

Years ago when my daughter was a toddler I always had my numerous rolls processed by Eckerd because of the quality & the discounts. One day I picked up my prints and there were about half a dozen prints that did not belong to me.

These were not in any way risque but they were clearly not mine. I asked the clerk if that was a thing that occurred often & she answered that "with the volume they dealt with it was bound to happen occasionally", adding that there was no way to really know since most people wouldn't attempt to return them as Eckerd had no way of knowing who they really belonged to once they were separated from their order. The idea of someone else having possession of photographs of my child just unhinged me for a while & I just stopped using my camera. Finally, this did strike me as most neurotic behavior, though

I still find it unsettling that privacy can be compromised so routinely.

What the families in this story endured was hell with a price tag of protection.

The type of scrutiny applied to their lives seems downright unconstitutional and I assume others will also react with rage & horror at the cost of that helpful employees good deed.

"DId any of these idiots ever think... That actual child pornographers might be a little more clever than to send their product to an Eckerd photo lab?"

Well, considering that child pornographers have been caught doing precisely that in the past, no, I don't think all child pornographers are necessarily that "clever."

I bet if the wives had gone along on this camping trip there would have been a bit more modesty and decorum exhibited by all concerned. I bet there wouldn’t have been any photos taken of the women taking a pee, or wading nude into the lake. Maybe there wouldn’t have even been any wading nude into the lake. So why did the guys do all this coarse behavior with the kids –- and document it on film?

Why was Noah encouraged to ham it up for the camera and hold his underwear over the fire? Surely not to dry the underwear -– that would be a mighty long time for the kid to hold the stick. It had to be that everybody was into some raucous, no-rules-here mode of behavior that was made by the dads to seem acceptable and fun. Heck, not only did we take that nifty picture of everybody peeing on the fire, but it’s a TRADITION to do that!! Did Eliza get to pee on the fire too, or just the boys? Do grown women, if invited along on camping trips, have to pee on the fire, and for the camera, in this tradition?

If wading was going to be on the agenda, why didn’t they bring swimsuits? Surely not because they would weigh down the packs. Were the dads skinny-dipping too? When is Eliza going to be old enough that her dad might want to have all the swinging dicks, child or adult, covered up?

As I review our family photo albums I don’t find a whole lot of nudity, either parental or child. You may think your child’s little privates are just adorable, but what is the point of memorializing them on film for all to see (and for the child to be embarrassed by) in the centuries ahead? How can we expect children to grow up into adults with dignity, self-esteem and modesty if we think it’s cute to photograph them in poses that destroy those attributes?

I think the authorities probably should have closed this case a lot sooner, and I do feel sympathy for the parents’ feelings of violation. But this whole story was triggered by the dad’s bad judgment. If camping trips are the occasion for dad-sanctioned behavior that is not acceptable at home or in any other public setting, and if dad insists on taking pictures of every instance, then I think somebody is asking for trouble. And guess what, he got it.

That actual child pornographers might be a little more clever than to send their product to an Eckerd photo lab?

MarijoCook,

I find it fascinating that you are so willing to let (other) families go through such things--and apparently all because conservatives won't allow us to "raise taxes and give them reduced, manageable case loads"??? As a liberal, I am appalled at such a mindset. It should not be the liberal creed that an innocent 70 percent must endure ridiculous investigations and bureaucracy in order to catch some guilty parties.

While I shouldn't wish it on anyone, I frankly wish investigators would call all of your friends, relatives, and associates to investigate you for child pornography--then we could have a conversation about how "nothing bad" happened to this family. Never fear--your true friends will not be swayed in their affections. And I'm sure that your employer and your children's teachers will regard this as nothing out of the ordinary.

If you did, you'd know that nude pictures come with the territory of having children. Kids run around naked. A lot of them peel off clothes when they're hot...most peel off clothes just to be free. And it's really cute and endearing and most of us take pictures of our kids doing just that, knowing that one day we'll kid around with our children when they're 25 and show them how cute and uninhibited they were when they were 3. I'm 38 and my mom still keeps a picture on the fridge of my sister and me sitting in a bathtub. We're naked, of course. Does that make my mom a pornographer? Or, for that matter, anyone who looks at the picture and exclaims, "Oh, how cute!"

I read this article with dread, thinking back to all the photos of my children that were developed in a store and that what happened to the author could have so easily happened to my family.

Yes, there are evil people out there, and yes, I want to stop them, too. But I also want to let my children be children and let them enjoy their own freedom from shame and embarrassment for as long as they can. I can't imagine what this situation has done to the author's children, how the discussion of "bad touch" and "good touch" will teach them shame of their bodies, how the incident will follow them until they are 21, and what it has done to their own trust in the justice system and, to some extent, to the adults around them.

There has to be a better solution than simply mining the drug stores for family photographs.