- French parents are being warned to stop posting pictures of children on social networks in case their offspring later sue them for breaching their right to privacy or jeopardising their security.
Under France’s stringent privacy laws, parents could face penalties as severe as a year in prison and a fine of €45,000 (£35,000) if convicted of publicising intimate details of the private lives of others — including their children – without their consent.
On one hand I agree when it comes to overly revealing pictures and on the other hand it seems like a bit much for just any picture. I do think parents should keep their settings to "friends only" for any personal info as well as pictures of their children but I wonder if that would matter with this new law ? I wouldn't complain if the ones who overshare like mad dialed it back a bit but I also don't see how they can be completely avoided if you have pictures of your family.
I think it's going to settle out with time. I don't have any statistics to back what I'm going to say, but I think that current parents posting their children's photos have a lot less friends on Facebook than the generation growing up now and thus are more willing to share these photos because it's a narrow audience of close friends. If you have 500+ friends, it seems weird to share photos of your children on your wall. Most people will not care at all and it's not the best way to engage with close friends.