What's the law around uploading pics to social media?

Former Member

my question is.. is it against the law for someone to take a picture of someone else kids without their permission and post it to facebook with out my permission?

Former Member

Hey blackbeauty :wave:

This is tricky, in a society where people are so open to sharing and taking photos it can be tough to remain in control. It is totally understandable that you don't want a photo of your child online without your permission, my family and friends are similar and get quite upset when they find people have posted photos without asking them first.

From my understanding (I used to work a little in this area) Facebook have an obligation to remove the image if the child is under 13 see their blurb below:

Facebook provides people with ways to report photos and videos that they believe to be in violation of their privacy rights. We'll remove photos and videos that you report as unauthorized if this is required by relevant privacy laws in your country, as long as the reported content involves you, your child (under 13) or another person for whom you are the legal representative or guardian. Photos or videos involving anyone else will need to be reported by the individual themselves.

You can search here for more info.

So if the photo is online you can use the report button and request to get in removed. From experience they have been pretty quick at responding to requests when it involves an under 13. If the child is over 13 they have to report the content themselves (this is due to some kind of data law I think ).

Is this person a friend? It could be worth having a chat and asking them directly and explaining why you don't want the images online to avoid it happening again.

Hope this helps

Former Member

Probably worth noting that it's not against the law for someone to do that, though. What facebook may or may not choose to do with the photos is largely down to their own policies. People are free to take photos of other people and to publicise those photos. In the UK, they would require the authorisation of the subject(s) if the photos are used commercially for a profit. This really is both as it should be and the only way it can be. One should not be placed under suspicion purely by the act of taking/using a photograph. Media hype around paedophilia has everyone worked up into a frenzy about anything to do with kids, to the point where folk are cheered for demonizing any act whatsoever that involves a stranger and children, even when intentions are entirely pure. Asides from a very minutely small amount of rare cases where there are child endangerment issues around publicising photos, nothing whatsoever is going to happen if a photo of your kid is placed online.
Having said all that, most photographers are quite reasonable in this regard and will listen to polite requests about photograph use, so your best bet would likely be a friendly word, rather than resorting to "the law" or removal processes.