Ophélie Artaud 6:00 p.m., January 27, 2023

If posting photos of your children on social networks is a common practice, it may soon be framed by law.

Three deputies from the majority tabled a bill aimed at "guaranteeing respect for the image rights of children".

One way to encourage parents not to overexpose their offspring on the networks.

Family photos, holidays, the birthday of the youngest... All it takes is a few clicks on Instagram to find photos with children.

Some even have their own account - and sometimes several thousand subscribers - managed by their parents.

But showing your children on social networks could soon be regulated by law.

On January 19, the deputies of the Renaissance group Bruno Studer, Aurore Bergé and Éric Poulliat tabled a bill aimed at "guaranteeing respect for the image rights of children".

Photos that can be hijacked

Because if, in theory, it is forbidden for children under 13 to create their own account on social networks, "it is estimated on average that a child appears in 1,300 photographs published online before the age of 13, on his own accounts, those of his parents or relatives", underline the deputies in their text.

For them, this can have consequences for "their safety, their well-being and their development".

Because once online, the future of these images is impossible to control, whether for the child or even for the parents.

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First of all, because a photo published on social networks can come out several years later and "harm the child in the long term, without the possibility for him to obtain absolute erasure", write the deputies.

According to them, the exposure of children on social networks, "the race for likes

and other appreciations can generate psychological problems, especially in the acceptance of oneself and one's image". Similarly, if the child is at school, the images can contribute to school bullying or cyberbullying.

But other risks exist.

The deputies carrying the text recall in particular that the photos can be diverted for child pornography purposes.

According to the figures from the reports of the

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

 taken up by the deputies, "50% of the photographs which are exchanged on the child pornography forums had been initially published by the parents on their social networks".

The notion of "private life" of children soon in the civil code?

"Even if it's not a question of dramatizing everything, you have to be aware of what can happen to a photo when you post it, especially when you stage a child", underlines Bruno Studer on

BFMTV.

Therefore, the objective of this bill is not to be "repressive", but to raise parents' awareness of the issue of their children's image rights.

"It is up to the parents, holders of parental authority, to protect the child in the exercise of his image rights", detail the deputies.

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Thus, the proposed law aims to modify several articles of the Civil Code relating to parental authority, in particular by introducing the notion of privacy.

The deputies also want to include in the law the fact that "the exercise of the right to the image of the minor child is exercised jointly by both parents".

In the event of a disagreement between the parents, MEPs want the judge to have the possibility of "prohibiting one of the parents from publishing or distributing any content without the authorization of the other parent", and that he can also act if "the dissemination of the image of the child by both parents seriously undermines his dignity or his moral integrity".

A way to encourage parents to question themselves before exposing their children to the networks.

According to

BFMTV,

the text could be presented to the National Assembly in March.