Is it a bad idea to post photos of your child?
If it falls within the definitions of pornography in terms of the Films and Publications Act or the Sexual Offences Act (and these definitions are quite broad), then they could be contravening the law.
SOCIAL media expert and an attorney and partner at Shepstone & Wylie (Durban) Verlie Oosthuizen, says parents can be held liable should their children’s pictures end up in the wrong hands. Some parents will post an innocent picture of their little one in a bath tub, running around unclothed on the beach but how many parents actually think beyond the ‘likes and shares’ the post gets.
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According to experts these types of moments with your child should remain private as posting such pictures put your child at risk by making them a potential target for child predators.
Oosthuizen said parents can even find themselves on the wrong side of the law.
The Northglen News asked Oosthuizen a few questions:
1. We know the use of children images by paedophiles is a criminal offence, but can there be other instances in which a person could face charges for uploading the image of a child?
Yes, in fact it can be a criminal offence for any person underage to upload or disseminate or store sexualised images of anyone under the age of 18, even if the picture is of themselves. Any sexualised pictures of a person under 18 cannot be uploaded or disseminated or stored.
2. Can anything uploaded by a Facebook (or any social media platform) user be used by other media companies or individuals without the user’s consent?
When you sign up to Facebook you do own the content but you grant Facebook the rights to use any of the material that you upload for the entire time that your account is open. This is the same for most social media platforms although terms and conditions may differ from platform to platform. If other media companies or users have access to your material (i.e. your settings are not completely private) they may use the content even though you own it.
3.Can a parent be held liable in any way for posting pictures of their child should the child’s image end up in the wrong hands, so to speak?
It will depend on the content itself and the facts of the case. Hopefully no parent is taking inappropriate pictures of their children. If it falls within the definitions of pornography in terms of the Films and Publications Act or the Sexual Offences Act (and these definitions are quite broad), then they could be contravening the law.
4. If not, what action can the user take if they find themselves in a situation where their image was used without their permission.
They should ask the person to take the content down. In the USA they are starting to register ownership in the copyright of sexual images and suing on that basis. Another option would be to go to the police and lay a charge of crimen injuria or approach the court for an interdict.
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