An 18 year old girl from Austria, who’s name has not been released to the public, is currently suing her parents for not taking down pictures of her as a baby from their Facebook-accounts. This case could proof to be a precedent for other legal claims made by children in similar situations.

Over the course of the last four years her parents posted numerous pictures of her as a child. The pictures show her during activities such as bathing or being potty-trained. While many people would consider photos like this to be perfectly normal, she is uncomfortable with her parents’ 700 Facebook friends ability to easily access them.

Her father, on the other hand, claims that because he was the one to take these pictures, he can use and display them in every way he sees fit. By asserting her newly found status as an adult, she is now trying to secure that right for herself.

While this girl’s concern is mostly focused on her parent’s Facebook friends, many other parents build ‘brands” around the popularity of their children’s pictures on the internet. Gavin, a 5-year-old boy, has become famous for his facial expressions as both his uncle as well as his mother openly encourage people to use Gavin’s pictures for humorous posts on the internet. Even though they might think this to be funny and ‘cool’, no one ever asked Gavin how he feels about this.

Becoming the literal ‘face’ of the internet might not sound like the worst thing that could happen to a child, however, there is a darker side to this way of pursuing fame. Publically shaming and punishing children by filming and posting it on social media has also become more and more popular with parents. While intended to correct the children’s behavior, one incident last year lead to the suicide of a 15-year-old girl after her father uploaded a video of him cutting off her hair on Youtube.

Best regards
und viele Grüße aus Charlotte
Reinhard von Hennigs
www.bridgehouse.law