HAVING just returned from a short trip to Tokyo, I logged on to my computer as soon as I could.

I learnt that the debate over a controversial banning of breastfeeding photographs on social-networking website Facebook is still going strong.

Since The New York Times ran a news story on breastfeeding pictures being pulled from some users' profiles last month, a high-profile "nurse in" protest had been staged outside Facebook's California headquarters.

And online, more than 11,000 people posted their own breastfeeding shots on their profile pages in protest.

Those up in arms over Facebook's decision - its spokesman cited its anti-nudity policy as the reason for the ban - say that censoring images of such a natural, maternal act serves to perpetuate the stigma that still surrounds breastfeeding.

Having breastfed my son until he was a year old, I do have a couple of breastfeeding snaps of myself. But they will never be seen on Facebook.

I am certainly not ashamed of the act and am not self-conscious about my body. But breastfeeding is an intimate act, and I wouldn't want everyone to see such a private moment.

Militant mums who demand that Facebook reinstate their breastfeeding pictures should consider this: If you post anything on Facebook, you give the site the right to use those postings even though, strictly speaking, copyright of your postedmaterial remains with you.

The website has drawn controversy and ire over how the media has used photos posted on Facebook.

In Toronto last year, the media identified a 14-year-old victim in a stabbing through Facebook, and ran pictures of her without seeking prior family permission.

Though this is against Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act, the fact remains that the pictures were online and available to anyone who did a search.

These days, I've stopped posting even the most innocuous things on Facebook.

You never know who's checking out your profile, even with the privacy settings set to maximum.

Now, should you meet a grisly end, publications are waiting to pounce on any juicy details in your online profile.

If that ever happens to me, I sure don't want photos of me, my son and my mammaries - oops, I mean my memories - reproduced for the viewing pleasure of all and sundry.

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