An Austrian teenager is suing her parents for posting childhood photos on Facebook.
The 18-year-old has filed a claim stating that her parents posted photos without of her without her consent including ones of her as a baby, when she was potty training and getting her nappy changed.
She says the photos have made her life a living hell since 2009 when he parents began posting the images, reports The New York Post.
“They knew no shame and no limit – and didn’t care whether it was a picture of me sitting on the toilet or lying naked in my cot – every stage was photographed and then made public,” the 18-year-old told The Local, an Austrian newspaper.
The teen has reportedly asked her parents to remove the some 500 photos, but the parents have refused, believing they have the right to post them.
“I’m tired of not being taken seriously by my parents,” the teen added.
This is the first case of its kind in Austria but is sure to set a precedent for other children growing up in the age of social media.
If nothing else it reignites the debate of whether or not to post photos of your child on social media.
“Your favourite picture of your child sitting on the potty for the first time may not be their favourite picture of themselves when they’re 13,” author and child psychologist Catherine Steiner-Adair tells The Guardian.
In France parents can face jail time and hefty fines if convicted for posting photos of their children online thanks to their strict privacy laws.
“In a few years, children could easily take their parents to court for publishing photos of them when they were younger,” Eric Delcroix, an expert on internet law and ethics tells The Telegraph.
A University of Michigan study found that children aged 10 to 17 were “really concerned” about the ways parents shared their children’s lives online, and this is only something that is going to become more common as time goes on.
“I think we’re going to get a backlash in years to come from young people coming to realise that they’ve had their whole lives, from the day they were born, available to social media,” adds Professor Nicola Whitton of Manchester Metropolitan University.
“Parents have to work out what’s right for them, but be aware that this is another person, another human being, who may not thank them for it in 15 years to come.”
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