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A Woman Is Suing Her Parents For Posting Embarrassing Childhood Photos To Facebook
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.
Someone clearly needs to "Grow The Fuck Up" (tm).
Part of life. Get over yourself.
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?
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.
I tell my kids tough shit, suck it all the time. It's called being a parent and caving into random whims about stupid stuff. I mean... what kind of parent says no to a kid who wants ice cream for dinner! They want it so they must have it!
Seriously... everyone has baby photos. We take photos of babies and post them on the internet. Before the internet we put them in books and then drug the books out whenever our kids brought home a significant other. Get over it. You were once a baby naked and covered in mud/spaghetti sauce and your parents took a picture. It probably even got taken in to work and is hanging up in a cube/office. That time you crapped your pants? Mom and Dad remember and will bring it up. Again. And Again. You'll probably do the same thing to your kids. Suck it up. Life is tough and not everyone likes you. It's my job to make sure you have the tools to make it, not be your friend.
I suppose it is possible that these 'embarrassing' childhood photos are not the typical spaghetti covered baby photos. But if that is the case, the parents probably belong in jail for other reasons.
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.
She's an adult now. You will probably want your kids to talk to you when you're 70. No one is going to carry a grudge about the lack of ice cream dinners, but this sort of thing? Public embarrassment of an adult? Questionably legal (clearly they don't have her consent as a model, though I'm not sure how Austrian law works for photos)? That's the sort of thing that makes people decide their life is better if they disown you.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
You're telling me it's "absurd" for her to sue, and she should "Grow The Fuck Up (tm)". But you're not telling me what she should actually do. What choices does she have other than suing?
The obvious answer is to ignore it. Non-mentally-ill adults do not experience "emotional distress" over the fact that people may see some of their baby pictures.
What about potential employers turning her down for a job in public relations?
This action has serious economic consequence for her. If anyone else but her parents did this they would clearly be on the hook for economic damages. Why do parents that have a due care responsibility to know better get off the hook?
But you're not telling me what she should actually do. What choices does she have other than suing?
How about ignoring it?
Or if she wanted to put a screeching halt to it, after her parents posted a photo, she should reply on Facebook, "You should post the ones you took after what you did to me next Daddy!"
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
The difference is that, these days, the entire world can search for a person and find those embarrassing pictures at will. In the pre-internet days, that embarrassment was limited to the number of people whom the parents could physically shove those pictures in front of, assuming they didn't rent a billboard or something absurd like that. Instant global availability does changes things a bit, you have to admit. What happens if those pictures are the first thing that shows up when someone performs an online search using her name? Maybe that's not the first pictures she'd prefer to have someone find of her.
Worth suing your parents over? Obviously, this family had other issues. Reasonably people would have agreed to take down the photos after realizing it was making the child uncomfortable.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.