Posting Kids’ Photos online is illegal?

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In France, anything is possible. Like getting tossed in jail for posting your children’s photos on Facebook.

12DYes indeed, it’s true. People in France might be put behind bars for putting their kids’ pictures on Facebook. Or, they may face heavy fines. This is because the French authorities deem posting kids’ photos online threatens their security.

Parents are being warned about the consequences of this violation. The authorities believe that posting images of one’s kids online can lead to some pretty nasty things:

  • Photo-napping, particularly by pedophiles
  • Stealing the images and posting them on adoption sites
  • Kids, when grown, suing their parents for emotional damage that they think resulted from photos of their younger selves being posted online
  • Parents may even sue each other if photos of their kids go up after a divorce.

France’s privacy laws are a force to be reckoned with. How does a year in prison and a fine of almost $50,000 sound for posting children’s photos? Wow, French parents really better watch out when posting that photo of the family reunion or company picnic with kids in the background.

If you’re poo-pooing France right now, save your poo-poos for Germany as well. German police are urging parents to stop posting their kids’ images—especially because a lot of people are putting up images of their kids naked in the context of water activities.

Maybe if fewer parents got off on posting pictures of their naked toddlers and even older children (one can only guess what these parents are hoping to accomplish), the police wouldn’t be so rigid.

Still think the police are over-reacting? And maybe they are, but consider this: According to The Parent Zone, the average person posts nearly 1,000 images of their child online by the time that child blows on five birthday candles. Now maybe The Parent Zone isn’t the gospel, but we all know people who seem to have 8,000 pictures up of their children on social media.

What’s even more staggering, says The Parent Zone, is that 17 percent of these parents have never bothered to set their Facebook privacy settings. And 46 percent checked the settings only one or two times. This all means that these parents absolutely are in denial that some weirdo isn’t drooling over their naked preschooler in the backyard baby pool.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to BestHomeSecurityCompanys.com discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston. Disclosures.