The French government is warning parents to think twice about posting photos of their children online, as doing so could carry harsh penalties, including a year in prison and a $50,000 fine.
If your Facebook feed is anything like mine, it's pretty well inundated with pictures of your friends' children. Proud parents sharing their children with the world is nothing new. However, in France, doing so could carry a steep penalty.
According to France's strict privacy laws, it's illegal to publish private details about someone without their consent, a law that extends even to one's own children. According to Eric Delcroix, an Internet law expert: "In a few years, children could easily take their parents to court for publishing photos of them when they were younger.” He argued further that children do not always want photos of them taken and posted, and thus, their right to privacy should be respected.
French police note that such photos can make it easy for predators to gain access to children, while Facebook Vice President Jay Parikh said that the company is looking into developing a tool that will warn parents when they post a picture of their children with inappropriate privacy settings. As photo-sharing continues to grow, and Internet culture, ethics, and law continue to evolve at a breakneck pace, this is a stark reminder of the awareness one must maintain when posting online.
[via The Telegraph]
Ok...this is a 'bit' ridiculous. I understand protecting kids, I'm all for protecting kids...but fining someone for posting a picture on a social media feed of that 'cute/adorable/embarrasing thing' your kid did, that's just bonkers. To top that, your kid could sue you later in life if they don't like the picture? Stop the world I want to get off.
So because you don't want your right-wing views criticized, nobody in this country should ever express opinions about what's happening elsewhere? Odd sentiment, especially at a time when the global influence and footprint of the United States is unparalleled in history.
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Unless they have different photography laws in France (which I doubt), you don't need anyone's consent to publish photos of other people, as long as they are in public. Europe really needs to back off already with their privacy laws, it's becoming more and more a nanny state like China.
This world looks more and more like the "San Angeles" society in Demolition Man
Unfortunately, this article is a bit misleading (just as as the French original: http://bit.ly/1MWlHJp). I think that there are some good reasons to think twice before posting photos of your children on social media - and that's exactly what the French police has pointed out. The „Gendarmerie Nationale" does not talk about fines or prison. Eric Delcroix is not a lawyer, judge, ..., but a "social media expert" with a mediocre homepage (http://ed-productions.com). I have studied journalism in France and we learned that privacy laws are really strict indeed. But as in every other country, French parents can take decisions for their children, e.g. sign a model release. Why should they not be allowed to post photos themselves?
Both sides have there points, I 'm sure. But it is sad fact that too many parents don't think twice before uploading pix of their more than half naked kids. But just as American facebook prudence is obsessed with their war on female nipples to a point of paranoia, we in Europe have a thing with privacy.
Just because we leave our front door doesn't mean we turn into public property.
I live in Germany, Which also happens to be in Europe, so I am kind of familiar white the problem of many local laws.
I just didn't want to go into too much details.
Not all Europe is the same.
If the parent is making money from posting images.... Okay understandable, you need a model release. Like how it is in the US... But this is straight up outrageous!
model releases are signed by the parent for children under 18 (at least in the US), so that's a moot point for taking and posting pictures of your own kids.
So I suppose the law will hold criminally liable tourists visiting France who are posting photos of their own children online.
That's such a crack up the French have been showing naked people on TV for years.....and now they decided to cover up children. France is full of brilliant ideas as of late!
I don't really understand the conclusion of this article? French police give a warning to parents, like Jay Parikh seems want to do... SO why there's all these kind of comments about an abstract war against Europe / US??? Or the fact that foreign people cannot say nothing about another country?? People cannot explain theirself?
And at the end, french are the best for making lots of laws (I'm french), and there are the best in the world for never apply it! So take it for a warning, not a way for limiting rights.
And from what I see everyday, all the bad news we all have (all around the world) in each news, give some warnings is not something bad.
But that's my OWN opinion ;-)
PS: like Sebastian Drolshagen says, this article is not really what the original say, take time to read the original.