What is a child’s image rights? How to best respect it? What are the risks of child overexposure? The Defender of Rights, Claire Hédon sheds light on us:
The Defender of Rights has published its Annual Reporton November 17, 2022, concerning the rights of the child and in particular his right to privacy. However, in this right to privacy, there is the right to the image of the child. The report highlights the digital risks associated with the publication of images of our children.
What does a child’s image rights consist of?
“The right to the image of the child makes it possible to authorize or on the contrary to refuse the reproduction and public distribution of his image (in photo or video)“explains the Defender of Rights, Claire Hédon. “It goes hand in hand with the right to privacywhich makes it possible to precisely authorize or refuse the disclosure of information concerning his private life”, she adds. As parents, we are responsible for our (minor) children, so it is our responsibility respect for their rights. However, “his image rights belong to the childhowever, being under the parental authority of his parents until his majority, it is up to them to give permission or not for the publication of an image”, reports Claire Hédon. She also recalls that “the corollary of this image right is that thewe can request the deletion of a photo on a website, we call the right to erasure or the right to be forgotten“. Right valid, including if we are at the origin of the publication of a photo which continues to be diffused on the Internet.
Who has the right to the image of the child when the parents are separated?
“If both have parental authority, the agreement of both parents is therefore necessary to allow the dissemination of an image of their child”, specifies the Defender of Rights. And to point out that “this authorization from the parents is valid whether the child is photographed alone or within a group of children”from the moment it is identifiable.
What to pay attention to before authorizing the right to the image of your child?
Permission to distribute the child’s image must be obtained in writing, with no exceptions. Including if it is, for example, to appear in an internal publication, at school. Claire Hédon also recommends that parents “read any document requiring their agreement concerning the right to the image of their child before signing to protect and supervise his right to the image”. Indeed, some boxes may include a right of redistribution or authorize a more general use of said photograph.
Can a parent freely post photos of their child on social media?
“Re child influencers or models, the dissemination of images of a child under the age of 16 whose activity comes under an employment relationship is regulated. Thus, parents should request a authorization from the labor inspectorate before uploading a video whose main subject is their child”, recalls the Defender of Rights. As for “pleasure” unpaid publications, a parent can post photos of his child on a social network. “Legally, there is no prohibition”concedes Claire Hédon who warns however about “them risks of overexposure for the child“. And in particular the embarrassment that it can induce in a teenager to see all these “baby” photos of him posted on the web. “The notion of the best interests of the child must be omnipresent for parents and they have to think about what their children might say later”she notes.
In the event of a conviction of a third party for damage to your child’s image, who receives the compensation?
What about payment of damagesafter a court decision, following a refusal to remove an image online? “If the damage comes in response to harm to the child, the court condemns the author to pay the child, represented by his parents, the compensation. It is managed by his parents, under the administration legal pure and simple, without particular formalism, and without payment, except in special cases, on a blocked account”, explains the Defender of Rights. On the other hand, as she points out, “the parents may also have been considered directly as victims themselves (non-pecuniary damage, etc.). Then, certain damages may be awarded to them by the court and paid to them”.
What are the risks of overexposure to a child?
Multiplying the publication of photos of your child on the Internet is not without risk for the parent: as they grow up, the child can appeal to the courts if he considers that this has undermined his dignity. Indeed, he can feeling humiliated or angry by the dissemination of certain images of him and/or by his digital overexposure. Especially since teasing between young people on these issues is quite common. Other risk for the child: “that his photos circulate on other sites, we do not know what they can become”, warns Claire Hédon. She thus suggests that parents ask themselves the question of the dissemination of the image of their children. The cursor must be the best interests of the child. It is therefore not a question of no longer immortalizing the moments in photos, but of keeping them in a paper album or in the photo library of our telephone, without necessarily systematically sharing them online. In addition, even when we choose to post them, to limit abuse, we can restrict their access to a small number of people or/and put our social networks in “private” mode to prevent everyone from having access to it.
“Parents are unaware of how to get his image removed”, notes the Defender of Rights. However, if it has been distributed without our authorization, we can first contact the author of this distribution (photographer, organizations, etc.).
► He refuses to remove the image? One can “go to the judge to ask for his withdrawalor even seek damages and/or reimbursement of attorney’s fees”reveals Claire Hédon, because “publications posted without proper consent are really regulated by law”.
► Finally, to make parents more aware of the right to a child’s image, the Defender of Rights informs us of one of the recommendations presented in her report on the rights of the child: the implementation of information modules for parents and children at each start of the school year. “We don’t give the same advice to children depending on their age and then, it’s important to inform them about the risks of digital or on the right to be forgotten”. And to conclude that“it is necessary to sensitize both parents and children to the respect of this image right”.