An 18-year-old Austrian woman is taking legal action against her parents for posting photographs of her to their social media accounts without her permission.
The woman, from the state of Carinthia, claims that since 2009 her parents have made her life miserable by consistently sharing images of her on Facebook, including intimate and embarrassing childhood photographs of her. According to her lawyer, Michael Rami, her parents have to date posted more than 500 pictures of their daughter on Facebook without her consent.
Among the pictures shared include images of her as a baby, when she was having her nappy changed or sitting on toilets during potty training. Given that her parents took the photographs, her father believes he has the right to publish them as he sees fit, The Local reports.
“They knew no shame and no limit, and didn’t care whether it was a picture of me sitting on the toilet or lying naked in my cot. Every stage was photographed and then made public,” the young woman said, adding that the images were shared to her parents’ 700 friends online.
The woman made repeated requests to her parents to remove the images from Facebook, who refused every time, leading her to taking legal action. “I’m tired of not being taken seriously by my parents,” she said.
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. This is the first case of its kind to make it to the Austrian courts, but based on international cases, Rami believes that the woman’s parents could be left facing a financial compensation claim for pain and suffering and would also have to cough up for their daughter’s legal fees.
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.
