[Darryl]

I have to agree with mrogers to some extent. I wouldn't want to find my own picture on the net, let alone my childs or wifes. If I post my own mug, that's one thing- I'm accepting whatever risk comes with that. Just look at my avatar- I don't really have two heads, but either one is really my face. But it was my choice to have it there- if I found my mug on some site somewhere and I didn't know how it got there, I'd be really concerned. And if I did know how it got there, I might be moved to have some words with the photographer- depending on the factors. I may not care, but also I might. It should be my decision to allow or not.

If a parent posts a picture of his or her own child, that implies that they have considered the potential risk to the child, and made the choice to post or not accordingly. Maybe they just wanted to show off how cute the kid is to, say, members of a forum such as this one. Fine- but they might unwittingly be subjecting that child to the devices of a perp. There's probably just as little risk to this as there is to sending the child off to school or over to a friends house to play, but the decision if for the parent to make. I might add that if I were the child and didn't want my picture to be posted, then I'd expect my parent to honor that.
Having said all that, it's a different matter entirely if someone else posts a picture of my child or wife without my knowing about it. I can see this arising quite easily in a tourist situation or similar. It's hard sometimes not to have other people in your shots. If your shot is focusing on one or more of the people, then you are essentially stealing their mug shots. If your focus is on something else, and other people happen to be in your pic, that's not the same. However if one of those people come up to you and request that that shot be scrubbed, then I think that you should comply for the sake of their peace of mind. If a photographer has 'rights', then that should be tempered by the 'rights' of any persons whose mug might be captured on someone else's camera.

I'm not saying that all pictures taken are going to be posted online somehow, or are going to be used in some way that's damaging to someone included in someone else's picture, but that is the potential. Without thinking any deeper into this, I'm going to suggest that the use of common sense by the photographer would usually be enough to sidestep any potential problems in this regard. If one's objective is to capture an image of someone without their consent, then (post process or whatever) and post it online- I think common sense would tell you that this really isn't appropriate.

Yes, if you're out in public, you'd expect that people will be seeing your face and there's nothing you can do about it. That doesn't suggest that you have no choice at all as to whether they take your picture and post it on the internet. What's the vote- how many of you would be offended by that and how many wouldn't?