Google brands father as pedo, notifies cops after he shared naked photos of his toddler with doctor
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: A worried father found himself accused of child abuse after Google flagged the naked images of his toddler that he sent to a nurse for a quick diagnosis.
In February 2021, Mark, a stay-at-home dad from San Francisco, California, became concerned when his toddler complained about swelling and pain in his groin. Mark’s wife immediately video called their family doctor to schedule an emergency check-up for the next morning, since the lockdown was still in effect. She also spoke to a nurse at the consultant's office who asked her to send some pictures of her toddler's groin for a quick diagnosis.
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Mark’s wife quickly grabbed his phone and took some high-quality snaps to upload them to the health care provider’s messaging system. The photos helped the doctor diagnose the condition better and prescribe antibiotics, which healed the swelling. But the innocent episode left Mark with a much bigger problem.
Two days after, Mark was informed that his google account had been locked because of “harmful content” that was “a severe violation of Google’s policies and might be illegal,” reports the New York Times. Mark, who asked to be identified by his father’s name fearing potential harm to his reputation, was caught in an algorithm designed by the tech giants to catch people sharing videos and photos of child abuse.
He got an alert on his android phone which notified him that the photos of his toddler have been handed over to the local law enforcement. “I knew that these companies were watching and that privacy is not what we would hope it to be,” Mark said. “But I haven’t done anything wrong.” He says he appealed Google’s decision, but the tech giant refused to budge.
Shortly after, the San Francisco police investigated the images and cleared Mark of any wrongdoing. However, the tech giant decided to keep Mark cut off from their services. Claire Lilley, Google’s head of child safety operations, said, “We do recognize that in an age of telemedicine and particularly COVID, it has been necessary for parents to take photos of their children in order to get a diagnosis.”
However, she added, the Google staff ran a close investigation into the case but had not been able to see any rash in the photos of Mark’s child, and further checks on his account revealed a video recorded some months earlier that showed a young child lying in bed with a partially-dressed woman.
Mark says he doesn’t remember recording any video, but that it sounded plausible. “I can imagine it. We woke up one morning. It was a beautiful day with my wife and son, and I wanted to record the moment,” he said.
Mark still has hope that he can get his information back as the San Francisco police have the contents of his Google account preserved on a thumb drive. A police spokesman said the department is eager to help him.