Do you have any cute family photos of the kids playing in the tub?

Better not let Wal-Mart see them. It could get your kids taken away.

A.J. and Lisa Demaree found themselves in a yearlong battle to prove they were not child pornographers. The Peoria, Arizona, couple had their home searched by police and their children — aged 18 months, 4 and 5 — placed in foster homes for more than month. Their names appeared on a sex offender registry, and Lisa Demaree was suspended from her school job for a year.

All because eight photos in a batch of 144 family pics that the Demarees took to Wal-Mart to have developed showed their kids naked in a bathtub.

Wal-Mart photo developers called the police, who then went to the Demaree home to question them and search their residence. Police seized numerous videotapes and the Demarees’ computers and said they found more photos and videos of the children frolicking without clothes.

“We have told our girls that they have freedom to be in their home and feel OK about their bodies and their nudity, but that there is a time and a place for it,” Lisa said.

Child Protective Services saw it differently and took the children from the home.

A medical exam of the children revealed no signs of sexual abuse, and a judge ruled that the photos were in fact harmless. But the damage had already been done.

The Demarees are suing the city of Peoria, the State Attorney General’s office, and Wal-Mart.

“This really makes me nervious,” said Dan Prescher, a U.S. citizen who has worked outside the U.S. for eight years. “America is the historic land of liberty and freedom, but everywhere you look today Big Brother seems to be watching. Wal-Mart is the new moral police. U.S. bankers are practically on the IRS payroll.

“I love my country,” says Prescher, “and I’ll probably live in the U.S. again at some point. But when Wal-Mart can get your kids taken away from you for taking their picture in a bathtub, I makes you stop and think.”