In this world there are nice people. And then there is the kind of person who would see a photo of a 7-year-old boy with Down syndrome having a blast at a Special Olympics event and report it to Facebook as inappropriate content. But that's just what one of Diana Cornwell's friends did this weekend.
The mom of 7-year-old Cole uploaded 40-some photos of her son and other kids with special needs at a fundraising event in North Carolina. Then she got a message from the social media site that they were suspending her account. All those photos of sweet kids?
Facebook was telling her they violated site policies! Cornwell was warned:
Never upload any photos that contain hate speech, support for violent organizations or threats to harm others.
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Did I mention the whole album was full of photos shot at a Special Olympics event? More or less the exact opposite of a "violent" organization? No wonder Diana is working her butt off to get news out to the world that Facebook needs to change its policies, including a petition (go sign it!) asking them to give special needs kids the benefit of the doubt.
But even if Facebook stops overreacting to reports of so-called inappropriate content, we still have a problem on our hands, folks. We still have the kind of jerk who would see a photo of a cutie like Cole and hit "report this photo" walking around. This is the battle parents of kids with special needs are fighting every single day, and not just on Facebook. The world is full of people who are cruel enough to see their child and react with disgust or distaste, or pull a cruel prank like reporting their photo to Facebook.
We need Facebook to be more judicious in how it deals with these reports to take some of the venom away from these people. But we also need to see MORE photos of these kids doing the very stuff Cole and his pals were doing in Diana's pictures: being regular kids, having fun. Because the more reminders these morons have that kids with special needs are kids first, the harder it is for them to treat them as second class citizens.
Have you dealt with one of these inconsiderate jerks? What have you said to them?
Image via Diana Cornwell/Care2