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A Woman Is Suing Her Parents For Posting Embarrassing Childhood Photos To Facebook 412

Earlier this year, we ran a story which talked about how a parent could be sued by their kids for posting their photos on Facebook. Over the past two years, we have seen several such cases, and now we have another one. From a report on NYMag:An 18-year-old woman in Carinthia, Austria, is suing her parents over the 500-odd childhood photos they've posted of her on Facebook without her consent. "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," she told The Local, an English-language Austrian newspaper. She went on, "I'm tired of not being taken seriously by my parents," who, despite her requests, have refused to take the photos down. The woman's father reportedly believes he's in the right to post the pictures because he took them. But her lawyer is adamant that if he can prove the photos violated the woman's right to privacy, her parents could be forced to pay damages and legal fees.
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A Woman Is Suing Her Parents For Posting Embarrassing Childhood Photos To Facebook

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  • now (Score:5, Funny)

    by sirber ( 891722 ) on Thursday September 15, 2016 @02:30PM (#52895249)
    can we see those photos?
  • by Flavianoep ( 1404029 ) on Thursday September 15, 2016 @02:31PM (#52895261)
    It has been some years since specialists began to warn about the dangers of over exposition of children online.
    • by quenda ( 644621 )

      It has been some years since specialists began to warn about the dangers of over exposition of children online.

      What danger? Turning them into narcissistic lawsuit-happy idiots?

  • Good Lord... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jratcliffe ( 208809 ) on Thursday September 15, 2016 @02:31PM (#52895263)
    I'm trying to wrap my brain around a parent who says no to their child's request that photos of the child be taken down from the Internet. This isn't even an issue of good parenting, it's an issue of common courtesy!
    • Re:Good Lord... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15, 2016 @02:41PM (#52895349)

      I'm trying to wrap my brain around a parent who says no to their child's request that photos of the child be taken down from the Internet.

      This isn't even an issue of good parenting, it's an issue of common courtesy!

      I'm trying to wrap my brain around someone who's embarrassed about something and thinking suing someone over it will somehow make things better.

      Streisand effect [wikipedia.org], anyone?

      "This embarrasses me, so my next step WILL MAKE EVEN MORE PEOPLE AWARE OF IT!!!"

      Either brains are in short supply in that family tree (nuts aren't...), or this is really about something else entirely. And that's NOT an exclusive or.

      • Re:Good Lord... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Narcocide ( 102829 ) on Thursday September 15, 2016 @02:51PM (#52895425) Homepage

        I suspect this issue goes far deeper than some nude baby photos. She probably is experiencing harassment from them on a nearly daily basis because they think that she is their property and they have souls made of shit. I can fully sympathize with eventually being fed up with this illegal, abusive treatment and deciding that there is nowhere else to turn but the law. Seriously. You don't seriously consider taking your parents to court as an adult if they were fair and good to you your whole childhood.

        • Re:Good Lord... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15, 2016 @03:02PM (#52895531)

          I suspect this issue goes far deeper than some nude baby photos. She probably is experiencing harassment from them on a nearly daily basis because they think that she is their property and they have souls made of shit. I can fully sympathize with eventually being fed up with this illegal, abusive treatment and deciding that there is nowhere else to turn but the law. Seriously. You don't seriously consider taking your parents to court as an adult if they were fair and good to you your whole childhood.

          It's much more likely the daughter is a hypersensitive, unsympathetic, thoughtless, self-absorbed twit.

          Disclaimer: I have a teenage daughter.

          • Or, it could be that the parents are harassing the daughter because she is a twit in a huge game of one up-manship. Streisand effect is also in play here, and the pictures are no doubt being duplicated on sites that are not Facebook.

            I am not sure what this lawsuit is supposed to do, but I am pretty sure it is having the exact opposite effect.

            1) the Parents come off as douchbags
            2) the Daughter comes off as "Precious Snowflake"
            3) The lawsuit is having Streisand effect.

            They just need to figure out
            4) ???

            And th

            • > Or, it could be that the parents are harassing the
              > daughter because she is a twit in a huge game of
              > one up-manship.

              Both could be true. Teenagers can undoubtedly be self-absorbed and obstinate. But there are also, without a doubt, parents who view humiliating their children as something between a sport and a god-given right. In this case, the latter is definitely true. So the only question is whether or not the former is as well.

          • It's much more likely the daughter is a hypersensitive, unsympathetic, thoughtless, self-absorbed twit.

            Disagree. I think we have some parents who lack empathy, are emotionally abusive and lack common courtesy. If someone posted naked pictures of me at any age publicly I'd be entirely within my rights to be pissed off at that asshole. Whether they see it as a problem or not is irrelevant. Now I'm sure there is more at play here than this one little incident but based on the facts at hand I have to say the parents are WAY out of line here.

            Disclaimer: I have a teenage daughter.

            And do you go out of your way to embarrass her or cause her emotion

          • the daughter is a hypersensitive, unsympathetic, thoughtless, self-absorbed twit.

            ....who learned it from her parents. It's a family issue gone to court.

      • This embarrasses me, so my next step WILL MAKE EVEN MORE PEOPLE AWARE OF IT!!!

        In general, I care far more about being embarrassed in front of my friends than everyone in China.

    • Re:Good Lord... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Thursday September 15, 2016 @03:21PM (#52895681)

      This isn't even an issue of good parenting, it's an issue of common courtesy!

      Those are mostly the same thing. Many people have asked me how I taught my kids to be so polite. I explain that I never taught them manners, I just treat them with courtesy and respect, and they have learned through example. If I ask them to do something, I say "please". When they do it, I say "thank you". I knock before entering their bedroom. If we are going out to eat, I ask them their preference. Etc.

    • I would remove some pictures, but not all of them. Also, I would say "no" if her reason was that she's ugly, or some other non-sense like that.

      If she really doesn't want to see her old pictures, she should just untag herself through Facebook and unfriend her parents.

    • However, it's a much more complex issue than that if you dig into it. According to copyright law, the photographers are the creators of those photos and have control over them. The subject was a minor and as such didn't have the authority to assign consent for use of them in the photos for various purposes - that falls to the parent or guardian who just happens to also be the content creator so naturally they would approve. And seeing as this is a non-commercial use, the previous point probably doesn't e

  • Interesting Question (Score:4, Interesting)

    by minogully ( 1855264 ) on Thursday September 15, 2016 @02:33PM (#52895275) Journal
    Do parents need consent if they are already granted the rights to make legal decisions for their under 18-year-old children? Can't they just decide for the kid as is their obligation and right?
    • Depends in the country. In Germany starting with 14 you can deny your parents to post content on you. It can be different in Austria, the USA, the UK etc.

    • The summary says she's 18. Pardon if you realized this and were trying to make a point unrelated to the article.

      • by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

        But, from the original source: "She claims that since 2009 they have made her life a misery by constantly posting photos of her, including embarrassing and intimate images from her childhood."

        GP asked a legitimate question concerning whether the parents need consent when they have the power to make legal decisions on behalf of their minor child, i.e., from 2009 to 2015-16.

        Her present age is only relevant if you support some form of the "right to be forgotten" that applies to everyone -- not merely "data pro

  • by ravenshrike ( 808508 ) on Thursday September 15, 2016 @02:33PM (#52895281)

    The days of her parents not taking her very seriously are coming to a middle.

  • Let me take a stab at this: the parents are wealthy.
  • At least here in the USA, such things have happened (kids filing lawsuits against their parents over various grievances) -- but I think 99.9% of the population takes a very dim view of it.

    I guess I'm ok with the legal OPTION being available for such things? But it seems really extreme. I'm not sure that most minor kids fully realize the ramifications of doing such a thing. I mean ... as much as you may dislike your parents embarrassing you with your childhood photos, you may later decide that was "nothin

  • by Anonymous Coward

    This isn't really about the photos per se.

    To be bothered by something so ordinary is pathological, so ask yourselves, why is she so self conscious to be bothered by this ordinary thing.

    There is actually a big clue in the story, the parents refused to take down the photos because the "father _owns_ them".

    That shows a complete lack of empathy for ones own child is hugely narcissistic.

  • Some mistakes have to be made ourselves before we can learn from them.
  • "Well, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle"

  • This might be a hoax (Score:4, Informative)

    by Menchi ( 677927 ) on Friday September 16, 2016 @06:06AM (#52899221)
    According to another newspaper (Berliner Morgenpost [morgenpost.de]) this story might be a hoax. Suspeced reasons: There is a single source for this story (Austrian tabloid "Die ganze Woche"), the court cited in the article doesn't know anything about this case, her lawyer cited in this article doesn't know anything about this case, the newspaper that is the only source doesn't comment on inquiries at all and the people involved in the lawsuit can't be contacted directly because their identities are not known. All of this makes the chances this is made up pretty high.

After all is said and done, a hell of a lot more is said than done.

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