Nothing is sacred on the internet, as local comedian Harith Iskander discover pictures of his infant son on a website also containing pornographic images. He made the discovery after Google Alerts notified him of his name appearing on the site.
The information was made public after Harith posted the discovery onto his official Facebook page. In the post, he noted that there were not only pictures of him and his son, but also many other children as well. The post also claims that the offending site is local due to the use of the Malay language in naming the images; however, the screenshots taken also show that the rest of the site is written in English. Harith has declined to name the site and is currently in the process of alerting the police and MCMC to take action against the owners of the website.
Google Alerts is an automated feature built into Google accounts that allows users to be notified when certain keywords or names appear on the internet. The feature itself is intended to allow people to keep track of their interests and important things, although it has also been used by parents to keep tabs on their children by receiving alerts whenever their child’s names appear in Google’s database of keywords.
Images being stolen for pornographic sites is not a new thing on the internet, as evident by the number of commenters on the post who have shared similar experiences. It is commonly women who fall prey to strangers, although it has also been known to happen to children as well.
We have contacted the MCMC for a statement on the matter; but in the mean time, perhaps this is a good time to remind people to be careful with what you post on the internet. Most social media accounts have privacy settings that prevent strangers from accessing your photos, and these should always be turned on.
