Evidence?

Was the focal point of the photo on the child’s genitalia or pubic area?

“It seemed to be.”

“Was the child who is depicted in an unnatural pose, or in inappropriate attire, given the age of the child?”

“They were naked.”

“Was the child nude or fully or partially clothed?”

“Completely nude your honor.”

That’s how quickly that can be used against you and I for one don’t have that kind of faith in our legal system.

Look, it’s your kid you do whatever you want, we could argue back and forth all day, I’m sure you’re a decent parent and handle things as appropriately as possible but for anyone else reading this maybe give some consideration to pictures you take of your vulnerable kids and what purpose those pictures serve, some strategic bubbles or a cloth make the picture 100% innocent and it becomes a non-issue.

you’re saying a baby feels trauma and shame when it has its picture taken and that leads to psychological problems as an adult and creates more trauma when you show that photo to their partner?

You’re being willfully obtuse. The trauma and shame comes from the picture being displayed for the parents amusement to potential romantic partners the first time they come over, presumably in their early teens.

virtually every new parent has photos of their baby naked on their phone.

Most I’ve seen are completely swaddled and only their little faces are visible.

And it’s legal.

Where did you get your law degree?

I have no idea why you don’t think it would be. A nude picture of your own baby is not child porn.

I mean, I personally agree with that.

No one has ever been put on a sex offender list for having a picture of their child just after it exited the womb on their phone.

Crazier shit has happened and we’re not talking about gross little bloody newborns fresh out of the box. In every baby pic I’ve ever seen (and in the context of this comic); they’re bath pics, specifically ones with their junk in it! It’s weird, just place some bubbles or a wash cloth strategically or something it’s not that difficult fuck.

And yet I don’t think you do have a point without evidence,

My point is childhood trauma takes a lot of forms and “good natured” showing naked pictures of your children to potential romantic partners the first time they visit (the thing we were talking about) is undoubtedly traumatic for a portion that experience it. I’m not aware of any specific studies studying the impact of showing nude photos of your children to their potential romantic suitors but I do know that childhood trauma has been studied and has far-reaching, unknown impacts. Even if the victim often doesn’t recognize the instance as abuse until much later in life, if ever.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/understanding-ptsd/202206/how-childhood-shame-can-affect-our-adult-relationships

https://psychcentral.com/blog/psychology-self/2018/09/childhood-toxic-shame

https://mind.help/news/childhood-humiliation-can-leave-lifelong-scars-warn-mental-health-experts/

Again, where do you get your psychology degree from?

I was about halfway through a sociology degree (admittedly as a pretty subpar state university) before I transferred to CS. What’d you study?

I’m sorry… do you think it’s illegal to have a photo of a naked baby on your phone?

They’re not something I’d want on my phone obviously.

We’re talking about pictures of your kids genitals. What a weird fucking hill to die on. Its your kid, take all the pics you want, probably don’t get caught with them on your phone.

It’s ok to just say “you know what you might have a point” and walk away sometimes my dude.

Psychology isn’t based on your bets.

Spoken like someone who’s never been in therapy or studied psychology, people bet and guess and infer stuff all the time; it’s a “soft” science for a reason.

That means no baby pictures at all.

Specifically pictures of their genitals, I feel like no baby genital pics is a good default, yes, what a weird hill to die on.

You have no evidence of this trauma.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence

You’re just guessing.

Guessing, inferring, surmising, call it whatever helps you sleep at night. I think of it as erring on the side of safety and respect for my kids. Not having pics of their junk doesn’t make my life any worse, there’s only downsides for them.

I didn’t dismiss anyone’s trauma, I’m asking if that has ever resulted in anyone’s trauma

How can I speak for every person? Has it caused someones trauma? Yeah I bet it has. You initially made it sound like you were showing bath pics to every teen-aged first date that came over which would obviously be pretty fucked up.

showing the partner the first couple of pictures of the kid as a baby should be acceptable to people just as a “this is what they looked like when it all began"

Yeah we agree, baby pics are fun, I especially like noting family resemblances as everyone ages. My sister made my mom a big set of scrapbooks/albums for each of her kids one year, no naked baby pics were included. They’re great fun to look at, highly recommend.

They also are unable to understand the concept of consent, let alone give it.

This is the primary issue, without even going into the obvious power dynamic between child and parent when it comes to consent later. Where do a childs rights end and parents begin?

I would also suggest that if that did cause someone trauma, it would be because the parent was aware this sort of thing would upset their child to that level and did it anyway.

I would suggest that most parents think they’re doing great doing it just like it’s always been done (i.e. generational trauma) and “they turned out just fine.” but there are definitely some intentionally abusive ones too. The child with the intentionally abusive parent is obviously going to have way more trauma.

I think most parents wouldn’t actually show the pictures if they knew it would cause the child real psychological pain, because that isn’t the point in doing it.

The “real psychological pain” part makes it look like you’re dismissing trauma, just because it’s not something you experienced doesn’t mean it isn’t valid and while intent matters so does the result. I’m sure you specifically are a good parent and you’re very conscious of your kids mental headspace but by default I’d say save it for the fiance if you just have to have them.

Yeah saving it for their long term partners (if you have to) is probably a better idea than showing them during the first meeting.

And please don’t dismiss other peoples trauma because you didn’t experience it personally, childhood trauma takes many different forms, some we’re only just becoming aware of.

You’re (wisely) backpeddling now but you said:

used to torture children in front of their serious romantic partners brought home for the first time.

Things were different when we were kids. It’s a fucked up thing to psychologically abuse your (presumably) teenage kids like that and objectively people know that. (Your daughters) consent in the subject is the only thing that matters. The only reason anyone is giving you a pass is because you’re FlyingSquid, but maybe leave those pictures in the closet until closer to the wedding.

Huge agree about pushing their merch! They’re shameless. I used to watch every day for years but stopped a long time ago; when every episode became a food episode. Their podcast (Ear Biscuits) is a bit better, it’s more them talking about things long form, just being 40+ year old fairly normal (if not very successful) guys. They’ve talked about quitting GMM, I think once their various kids are done with school they’ll pack it up (the main show at least). They both have other passions but it’s really difficult to stop when you’ve built a successful, working media company with your childhood best friend, even if they’re both ready to retire.

They actually bought Smosh and brought Ian and Anthony back, and then sold Smosh back to them a few years later. That was a really cool move to me and and got them a HUGE pass in my book, they’re stand-up guys.

Full disclosure: despite not watching much of their video content anymore I still went and saw them on their most recent tour (about a month ago, it was a gift) and had a great time. They did some of their games but modified them to be specific to my state, did a food ranking with some local-foods, and of course had a couple musical numbers.

So you logged into all their social media and changed their passwords and recovery emails right? I don’t just want access now, I want it in perpetuity.

“Real estate certainly isn’t cheaper in the eu, except you only count new york, Hawaii, or california real estate prices.”

There you go I fixed it and the statement still applies.

Or people who thought the same way until they met someone.

It’s probably just nostalgia but the 90s were formative. It was pretty much peak network TV. Peak music label music, the internet was a thing everyone had heard about but only schools and nerdy parents had. It really does feel like a different era.

Never saw the cinematic masterpiece that was Harry and the Hendersons?

Anyone out there who’s never tried the delicious treat known as frozen custard should absolutely give it a shot. All the sweet creamy goodness of icecream that’s way more creamy and dense.

Imagine not having the freedom to have your daily gun battle!

One that I really enjoyed during my pretentious phase was the father of modern philosophy himself, Immanuel Kant. He wrote a lot about ethics and aesthetics but the crux of his work boils down to the idea that space and time are just “forms of intuition” that structure our experience and are just appearances we can comprehend. The true nature of things as they are in themselves is unknowable to us.

As someone who has always considered themselves very rational and more of an agnostic than an atheist, his ideas really clicked with me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes

Chicken strips are exactly what I was thinking! We have a “Chesters Chicken” attached to some of the gas stations here that have these big battered potato slices, they’re almost a meal by themselves!

Yeah I fuck with Arbys, that sauce is dope and the Jamocha shake is pretty good too.

I have a thing for bad gas station food too though so I might not be the best judge.