Parents could face penalties as severe as a YEAR in prison and a fine of £35,000 if convicted of publishing intimate details of their children’s private lives online in France.
Eric Delcroix, an expert on internet law and ethics, said: “In a few years, children could easily take their parents to court for publishing photos of them when they were younger.”
French adults could use the country’s privacy laws to sue their parents for breaching their right to privacy as children and could win substantial compensation, according to French legal experts.
The French Gendarmerie also recently launched an appeal on Facebook urging parents to stop posting photos of their offspring on social media.
A Facebook post by national police chiefs said: “Protect your children…You can be a proud mum or dad of magnificent children but beware.
“Remember that posting photos of your children on Facebook does not come without risks.
“It is important to protect the privacy of minors and their images on social networking sites.”
The police also warned parents about ‘chain’ posts on Facebook with messages such as: ‘Are you proud of your children? If so, post three pictures of your beautiful children on Facebook and get 10 of your friends to do the same.’
The appeal comes as French police renewed warnings about the danger of paedophiles targeting children after seeing family snaps online.
Some French parents have been forced to remove naked pictures of babies or young children from social networking sites.
Viviane Gelles, a lawyer specialising in internet-related issues, said under French privacy law “parents are responsible for protecting images of their children”.
Mr Delcroix said: “We often criticise teenagers for their online behaviour, but parents are no better.”
The expert said parents should think about how their children will feel later in life about having pictures of them as infants being posted on social media sites.
Jay Parikh, a vice-president of Facebook, said the social media site was considering setting up a system to notify parents who post pictures of children online without restricting privacy settings.
Mr Parikh said: “If I was putting online a photo of my kids playing in the park, and I accidentally shared it with everyone, the system could say ‘Hey, wait a minute, this is a picture of your children. Usually you only send them to members of your family. Are you sure you want to do this?’”