I’m sure almost everyone who is reading this has a picture of themselves in the bathtub when they were very young. The Demarees did the same thing, taking cute pictures of their kids with their arms around each other in the bathtub. Soon after, the family took their pictures to Wal-Mart to be developed and printed, just like we all have done many times. Without telling the family, a Wal-mart photo devoloper contacted the police to investigate if the photos in the bathtub contained child pornography. That set in motion a chain of events that is hard to believe. According to ABC News, the children were taken away from their parents for more than a month, Lisa Demaree was suspended from her job as a teacher for a year, and the Demarees have had to incur more than $75,000 in legal fees to defend themselves. The Demarees were found to have done nothing wrong; they were cleared of all charges and the pictures were found not to contain any pornography at all.
While I am as concerned as anyone else about the dangers of child pornography, Wal-Mart did not handle this the right way, ruining the lives of innocent people who did nothing wrong.
Wal-Mart should not have contacted the police in the first place. The pictures were obviously typical of those that parents take of their children everyday. There was nothing in the pictures that was even remotely pornographic. Wal-Mart also did not have a policy that warned their customers about the sorts of pictures they would find unacceptable; nor did they warn the parents they might be contacting the police.
People have a right to privacy. When people bring their pictures in to be developed, they have a right to expect that those pictures will be kept confidential and will not be screened by store employees who have no business looking at them. By needlessly reporting this to the authorities, Wal-Mart created a nightmare for this family.
The Demarees say that they have lost a year of their children’s lives, losing memories they will never be able to recover. They are scared about any photos they might take in the future. The people at Wal-Mart who decided that the photos were inappropriate were unqualified and should be fired. They had no criteria for making the decision. At a minimum, Wal-Mart should have had a clear policy that was communicated to their customers warning them about the sorts of pictures that they regard as offensive. If Wal-Mart thought that taking family pictures of children in the bathtub was out of bounds, they should have said that to their customers.
The Demaree family is now taking the offensive. They have filed two different lawsuits. The first case is against Arizona, Peoria. The lawsuit alleges that Arizona, Peoria and the state Attorney General's Office claims employees from each entity defamed the Demarees by telling friends, family members and co-workers that they had "sexually abused" their children by taking pornographic pictures of them. By defamation they are saying that untrue statements were made about them, and that they have ruined their reputation.
The second lawsuit was filed against Wal-Mart. The family is saying that says the company is at fault for not telling Anthony Demaree that it had an "unsuitable print policy" and could decide to turn any photos over to law enforcement.
It is too soon to tell whether Wal-Mart or Arizona officials are going to be liable for what they have done. However, I believe that what happened to the Demaree family was wrong and should not be allowed to happen again. The best way to avoid this in the future is by requiring photo developers like Wal-Mart to publish clear policies about what sorts of pictures they consider to be inappropriate, and the circumstances when they make contact to the authorities.
2 comments:
Just because some Walmart employee was noisy, doesn't mean they had any right to go and decide that what was none of their business in the first place was child pornography.
The response from walmart was outrageous I don't think that they should even be able look at the pictures that are sent for printing. The pictures are private and even if people have to look at them they should have a vow of silence like a priest during confession.
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