[liberationtech] Sharing children's lives online?

[Paul Bernal (LAW)]

Sorry to butt in, but in Europe - or at least in the UK - this would all be subject to data protection law, and this kind of thing would be very, very unlikely. In my daughter's school at least, they're very strong about asking permission before any photos are used, and always do their best to make sure people know exactly how photos etc. are going to be used.

Mind you, there's another factor that I'd want to take into account for kids (though not pre-schoolers) which is the rights of the kids themselves to privacy. Under the UN CRC, they're supposed to have rights in accordance with their maturity and understanding, not just their age - and those include privacy rights. Those rights compete with the parents' rights - but the kids at the very least have the right to be consulted on the subject. I don't know many places in the world where this actually happens: the Convention on the Rights of the Child is paid little more than lip service.

Paul

Dr Paul Bernal
Lecturer
UEA Law School
University of East Anglia
Norwich Research Park
Norwich NR4 7TJ

email: paul.bernal at uea.ac.uk<mailto:paul.bernal at uea.ac.uk>
Web: http://www.paulbernal.co.uk/
Blog: http://paulbernal.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @paulbernalUK

On 9 Jan 2013, at 00:55, Brian Conley <brianc at smallworldnews.tv<mailto:brianc at smallworldnews.tv>>
 wrote:


Hi all,

Perhaps this is not the right forum, but I happen to believe it is. If we care to discuss liberation tech, we ought to discuss the liberation of those who have little or no capacity to choose for themselves, yes?

What's concerning me today is a decision by my daughter's preschool. They blog daily with photos and narrative stories about the kids day st school. Previously, though technically "public" the blog was not indexed and very difficult(impossible?) to find without the direct link.

At the beginning of this year they overhauled the site and are publishing the blog in its entirety attached directly to the preschool. That this change was done without discussion or consent of parents strikes me as greatly concerning.

As many of you know, I'm generally one of the people saying that too often libtech activists are a bit excessive in their response to the forward progress of technology and social media. Am I out of bounds here? Is this kind of daily blogging of a preschoolers life not a bit frightening?

Any advice from other colleagues, parents or otherwise, would be greatly appreciated. Though I might have answers for activists and civilians threatened with death or worse, this situation leaves me at a loss as to how I should respond.

Regards

Brian

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