WAVE 3 TV Louisville, KY | MySpace pulls family pictures of burned child from site

MySpace pulls family pictures of burned child from site

By Scott Harvey - bio | email 
Posted by Charles Gazaway - email

SULLIVAN, IN (WAVE) - On the popular social networking site MySpace.com, you can find pictures of almost anything, including violence and nudity. But WAVE 3's Scott Harvey reports that one Indiana family is outraged after the pictures they posted, in memory of their son, were said to be too offensive and deleted. WAVE 3 now wants them to have a place to tell their story.

After we heard MySpace banned the pictures, we contacted the McComb family to let them know they could post them on www.wave3nation.com. Once you read their story, you will know why.

"Regardless of what he looks like he is still a child," said Bill McComb. "He's not a monster." 

McComb's son, BJ, was severely burned in a house fire when he was only 18 months old.

"He had infections and all kinds of stuff going on and he fought through all of it and made it for seven years after the fire," said Karlyn McComb, BJ's mother.

Now, pictures of BJ is all the family has left.

"Because BJ is gone we don't have very many pictures left of him before the fire," said Bill. "So every picture that we have is like gold to us."

But to the McComb's, the pictures mean so much more.

"This one is BJ's first meal," said Karlyn pointing at pictures that bring back priceless memories of her son. But when Karlyn wanted to share BJ's story with friends and posted pictures on her personal MySpace profile, they were soon deleted after someone supposedly complained.

"It says you may feel singled out, but be assured we delete each and every one of these images as we locate them," read Karlyn from an email she received from the site.

But it didn't stop there. Karlyn says MySpace.com actually threatened to delete her entire profile if she reposted the pictures.

"It makes me very angry and it's probably a good thing that MySpace.com is in California instead of Indiana," said Bill. "Because I'd be in their office having a few choice words with them."

"Personally I would like for them to apologize to us first of all, but not just to me, but to BJ and say you're not offensive and we are sorry that we ever thought that," said Karlyn.

But MySpace.com isn't apologizing. They wouldn't explain exactly why the pictures were erased.

"They flagged him as inappropriate or offensive, just because he's different," said Bill. "I don't find someone who's different as offensive or inappropriate."

Again, we invited the McComb family to post pictures and videos of BJ on www.wave3nation.com, so they could share his story with anyone. If you have a touching family story of your own, feel free to post it as well.

When we contacted MySpace.com, they wouldn't release an official comment, but only said that the pictures posted by the McComb family violated the website's terms of service.