“If I’d ask you about that picture, would you be ok if I
posted it?”
“Ummm, yes.”
“Oh really? So it’s actually about the asking not about the
picture itself”
In the New York Times video on Sharenting,
seven-year-old Lucy confronts her mother about her social media habits. She,
along with the two other underage children showcased in the video, express
their discomfort with their mothers’ sharing photos of them online without
their consent. Some mothers, like sixteen-year-old Zoya’s, are defensive; “What
is everybody so worried about?” she asks after Zoya confronts her about a
picture she posted on social media of Zoya with sauce of her face. While, to
Zoya’s mom’s credit, an embarrassing picture a parent posts of their child on
social media may not mean the end of the world, the conversations that
the New York Times highlights in this video fit into a larger
discussion about children’s rights. Children are human beings who possess rights
under the law; however, to a certain extent, they also treated as the property
of their parents. It was not until 1989 when the United Nations adopted
the Convention of the Rights of the Child when the rights of
children were formally recognized. While it does not touch on topics of
privacy, consent, or identity, with the prevalence of social media and the
rapid development of technology, it might be time reconsider what rights a
child is entitled to.
The right to privacy becomes much more complicated when
applied to children. While it easy to argue that children have a right to
privacy, for the first few years of their lives, children do not know what
privacy is let alone the ability to protect it. In these cases, the
responsibility is put on the parents to “protect” their children’s privacy.
But, as this New York Times video shines a light on, many
parents do not. Parents should get their children’s consent, but what happens
when the children are not old enough to consent? While most
parents may have good intentions, posting pictures of children online without
their consent could be skewed as a form of exploitation. Article 36 of
the Convention on the Rights of the Child protects against
exploitation, stating “States Parties shall protect the child against all other
forms of exploitation prejudicial to any aspects of the child's welfare”. With
social media, the definition of exploitation has broadened since 1989. Over the
past few years, 'family vloggers' have become increasingly popular on YouTube.
YouTubers like AceFamily and ItsJudyTime post daily videos of their children
online for millions of people to watch. While a mom posting a picture of her
daughter on Facebook may not necessarily qualify as exploitation, a 'YouTube
mom' posting a picture of her daughter holding up a sponsored product to earn
money definitely does. We can say that children have the right to privacy,
however, there is not much that can be done when children are under the
guardianship of their parents. With pictures of children on social media, there
is a fine line between protecting children’s rights and telling people how to
parent. Although this topic of a child’s right to privacy is fairly new, it
reminded me of the issue of paparazzi posting pictures of celebrity children
online. In 2013, many high-profile celebrities, like Halle Berry and Jenifer
Garner, testified in front California legislators, pleading for the protection
of their children’s right to live in privacy. After years of petitioning,
California finally passed a law preventing paparazzi from selling photos of
celebrity children to tabloids and other news sites. While paparazzi may no
longer be able to make money off of pictures of children, the children’s
parents still can.
In Dave Eggers’ The Circle, Ty Gospodinov states,
in “The Rights of Humans in the Digital Age” that humans “must all have the
right to anonymity”. Does this statement apply to only apply adults or does it
include children? While, instinctively, we may think "yes, of course”,
realistically, how can we protect a child’s right to anonymity from their own parents?
Works Cited:
Eggers, Dave. The Circle.
New York: Vintage Books, 2013. Print.
McGreevy,
Patrick, and Melanie Mason. “New Law Restricts Paparazzi Access to Children of
Celebrities.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 25 Sept. 2013, www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-xpm-2013-sep-25-la-me-ln-paparazzi-targeted-in-new-law-that-deals-with-kids-of-celebrities-20130925-story.html.
New York Times. “If You Didn’t ’Sharent’, Did You Even Parent?” New
York Times, 7 August 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/07/opinion/parents-social-media.html.
The United Nations. “Convention on the Rights of the
Child.” Treaty Series 1577 (1989): 3. Print.
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