The blurred patch in front of the front door used to show one of Laura Haslam's children playing naked. Photo/Google
The blurred patch in front of the front door used to show one of Laura Haslam's children playing naked. Photo/Google
Google Street View published naked images of two naked children playing outside their house, leaving their mother horrified.
Laura Haslam, 27, was outraged after finding out daughters Brooke, four, and Eva, three, were snapped by internet giant Google Maps outside their fenced-off home in Poulton-Le-Fylde, Lancashire, according to target="_blank">Daily Mail.
The youngster's faces were blurred in the images - but their naked bodies could clearly be seen using the website's 'street view' option as users trawl along the street.
Haslam said: "It's quite scary scared because I don't know how many people might have seen it.
"I don't know how long it's been there for, but it looks like it was taken last summer.
"It was a hot day and I put the paddling pool out at the front of the house because that's where the sun is - but I certainly won't be doing that again."
Laura, a business student at Blackpool and The Fylde College, made the alarming discovery last week after being alerted to it by a neighbour.
She reported the image, which was taken in 2016, to Google and contacted the police, who also contacted Google about having the image removed.
The pictures have since been fully blurred and the girls' bodies can no longer be seen.
Haslam said: "I couldn't believe it when a neighbour knocked on the door and said 'you need to look on Google maps because your kids are naked on the internet'.
"I honestly thought nothing of it and thought he was winding me up - but then I was just so shocked to see it.
"I mean, they had their faces blurred out but it was enough for a paedophile to get a kick out of it."
Haslam, who is engaged to Jordan Senior, 33, said she has kept the original image just in case if she becomes involved in legal action.
Their naked bodies could clearly be seen using the website's 'street view' option as users trawl along the street. Photo/Google
Mother-of-two Haslam said: "I know I would never win taking on the likes of Google and their army of lawyers - but something needs to be done.
"I know they automatically blur faces, but surely they should scan the area for naked bodies - any pervert could have looked at my kids on there.
"Why is it acceptable to show their bodies and not their faces?
"The images have been totally smudged now but I don't know why they didn't do that in the first place."
She added: "Like, if I was sunbathing topless in the garden, I wouldn't, but let's just say I did, and that image of me got out - I would be devastated."
Haslam told the Knott End and Preesall Pre-School where her children are pupils about the incident and the nursery has posted warnings to parents.
A Lancashire Police spokesman said: "A request was sent to Google to remove the image of the children. The complainant was also advised to send a request."
A Google spokesman said: "Google takes a number of steps to protect the privacy of individuals when images are published to Street View.
"We automatically blur sensitive information like faces and vehicle licence plates and in this case although the faces were already blurred, we applied additional blurring to the image when requested."
