Austrian teen sues parents for posting embarrassing pictures on Facebook

An Austrian teen still very much on Facebook (I’m shocked too) wasn’t about to let her evil, and not to mention inconsiderate, parents get away with posting embarrassing photos of her on the social media site-so she sued them.

‘I’m exhausted of not being taken seriously by my parents’.

When she asked them to take them down, they refused.

Authorities in France actively advise parents to keep photos of their children offline, and anyone convicted of publishing images of another person – including family members – without consent can face up to a year in prison and a hefty fine.

According to Michael Rami, if the woman’s day in court can prove that the photographs have violated her rights to a personal life, then she may well win the case. The case is the first of its kind in Austria, but the outcome could have ramifications for other European countries as well.

“It has the potential to put them at risk”, she told Fairfax Media. “Whether I was sitting on the potty or naked in my crib, my every step was recorded photographically and, afterwards, made public”.

Now she is suing her parents for infringing her right to privacy.

The French law is based on the concern that posting such images of children could have a negative psychological effect on them, and even risk attracting sexual predators.

Rami said he was seeking financial compensation for his client, as well as a court order for her parents to take the pictures down.

The case will go to trial in November, with the verdict having major repercussions for how parents in Austria deal with images of their children online.

The teenager, from the southern Carinthia region of Austria, claims the intimate pictures from her childhood have made her life a misery.

The survey found that 85 per cent of parents had not reviewed their Facebook privacy settings in more than a year, and 79 per cent wrongly believed strangers could not see pictures of their children.