In the era of social media, privacy has arised as an important concern for everyone all around the world. Various laws were enacted to protect the rights of the people in France. The law makers despite the arising new concerns, come with new legislations to ensure the welfare of the people.
Sharenting and its impacts
Sharenting is the practice of sharing private information of the children (photos, sensitive information) by their parents on the internet.
This is a term coined in 2010 by the Wall Street Journal. Sharenting is when the parent creates an account for their child and posts their photos, videos and personal information, staking their kids’ privacy at risk.
When a parent shares their children’s information on social media, it is to basically show off their prized possessions (their kids) to everyone around the world.
In later life, when these kids grow up they feel embarrassed seeing those childhood photos. These kids after becoming adults, they detag themselves from their childhood photos so that those photos will not be shown in their profile.
Law against ‘Sharenting’
The French government has recently passed a bill to restrict parents from sharing the pictures of their children on social media platforms. The National assembly of France unanimously approved the law proposed by MP Bruno Studer from President Emmanuel Macron’s party.
According to the law, the parents will be punished if they share the photos of their children on social media platforms without their permission. This law shows that parents do not have absolute rights over their children’s photos.
As per the law the age and maturity of the children is taken into account and to post the photos of their children the parents should need their child’s consent.
This law received great applause from many child right activists in all of France but some experts think that the law needs to be improvised more.
Improper usage of photos
MP Studer, stated that the pictures shared over the internet are used for child pornography. A shocking fact was revealed in the bill that nearly 50 percent of the child pornography photos were taken from the pictures shared at the social media platform.
Le Monte interviewed Mr. Studer, in which he said that he recently found nearly 1,300 photos of a 13 year old child circulating all over the internet. This involves dangers of the pictures being used for child pornography and those children may be subjected to bullying by other kids in their school surroundings.
Parents should understand that children just like adults have the right to privacy.
As children, they would not be aware of their own privacy. And hence, it comes as the responsibility of the parents to protect it and ensure safe cyberspace experience for their kids.
