Sharenting, France opposes the sharing of photos of children on social networks
91% of parents post photos of their children on social media before they are 5 years old and 50% of the images exchanged on child pornography forums were initially disseminated online just like that. Here then is what a recent bill in France provides for
“Every parent thinks they are doing the best and only they will have to judge us”. Chiara Ferragni (almost 29 million followers on Instagram) said so when speaking of the overexposure of her children on social media, but the debate is always open and France has decided to bring the issue to Parliament, with a bill that wants to put a limit.
SHARENTING PHENOMENON
From the union of the English words share (to share) and parenting (parenting) was born the neologism – entered in 2022 in the Oxford English Dictionary – sharenting to describe the phenomenon of parents who share photos of their children on social networks.
FRANCE SAYS STOP
For some, the phenomenon seems to have taken a real drift and France, already working on a law that protects children from accessing porn sites , has now put forward a bill that puts a brake on social media parents.
The goal, explained macronist deputy Bruno Studer, member of the delegation for children's rights created in September 2022 and promoter of the initiative, is to "make parents more responsible", but also to clarify that "parents they have an absolute right” to their children's image.
WHY
"These are photos that could be misused for child pornography or bullying in schools," said Studer, a former history-geography and civics teacher . In fact, the bill recalls that "50% of the photographs exchanged on child pornography forums were initially published by parents on their social networks", oblivion in which control over the distribution of images is lost.
And, according to a recent survey , 91% did so before their offspring were 5 years old, yet 44% of respondents "assure they have obtained their child's consent".
"On average – reads the proposal -, it is estimated that a child appears in 1,300 photographs published online before the age of 13, on their own accounts, on those of their parents or relatives", which for the deputy represents "one of the main risks for the privacy of minors”.
The Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, also gave his support "with strength and conviction" to the text, underlining that some images of children can lead to cyber-stalking or "compromise their credibility for future school applications or professionals".
THE PROPOSAL IN 4 POINTS
The proposal includes 4 articles and reads as follows: “Article 1 therefore aims to introduce the notion of private life in the definition of parental authority. Article 2 specifies that the exercise of the image right of the minor child is exercised jointly by both parents. Article 3 establishes the measures that the judge can adopt in the event of disagreement between the parents in the exercise of the right to the image of the minor child”.
But article 4 is "the flagship measure" according to Le Monde because, as the deputy added, "in the most extreme cases it is envisaged that the judge of the family court can entrust the exercise of the image rights of the children".
The measure was welcomed by Parliament, where yesterday, writes Libération , "it was unanimously approved in the first reading in a consensual atmosphere". The text will now pass into the hands of the Senate.
THE LAW ON CHILD INFLUENCERS
The proposal follows in the wake of another French law advanced by Studer and already approved in 2020 with the name of the law on "child influencers", created to regulate the hours and income of minors whose images are disseminated on video platforms, which the French National Assembly addressed last Thursday by voting in first reading on the obligation for TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram to verify the age of their users and to request parental consent for the registration of children under 15.
Convinced that this issue is at the heart of the issues of our time, the deputy has made it one of his battles without claiming to provide a miraculous answer, but with the ambition of warning parents: "When we make a bill, it is also to question an argument”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/sharenting-la-francia-si-oppone-alla-condivisione-delle-foto-dei-figli-sui-social/ on Tue, 07 Mar 2023 11:09:17 +0000.