Parents posting innocent pictures of their kids online might not look harmful. But because of the possibility that these pictures may be reachable and can end up in the hands of "bad" people, this move is actually risky. That's why the French authorities, aiming to protect the privacy of their kids online, recently imposed a new law regarding it.
As to the French law, posting private details including photos of their children can cause parents to face penalties which include ending up in prison for one year and a fine of almost $50,000. "In a few years, children could easily take their parents to court for publishing photos of them when they were younger," said Eric Delcroix, an expert on internet law and ethics.
The photos don't just include naked pictures which can possibly attract the eyes of pedophiles. As posted in HNGN, "French experts believe that certain photos also violate the rights of the kids, especially when they do not give their consent to post it." That's why the French government is serious in implementing this law to their people as they believe it can protect the next generation from future potential embarrassment.
Twitter, a social media platform, conducted a survey about whether or not parents are in favor of the newest addition to the laws in France. The result suggests that of all the participants, only about 14 percent of them agreed, while the other 86 percent did not.
Meanwhile, Facebook is already aware of the issue and is planning to do something regarding it by setting certain security measures. In fact, the company's social network's head of engineering Jay Parikh had have some ideas on how to update the system. "If I were to upload a photo of my kids playing at the park and I accidentally had it shared with the public, this system could say: Hey wait a minute, this is a photo of your kids, and normally you post this to just your family members, are you sure you want to do this?" Jay Parikh said.