The Women and Child Affairs Ministry has urged parents and guardians to exercise caution when sharing photographs and videos of children on social media platforms.
The trend of uploading children’s photographs and videos to the internet has increased with the growing use of monetisation methods on social media platforms, including Facebook.
The Ministry has also received information indicating that various individuals and organisations are using such images and videos for commercial purposes under the pretext of showcasing children’s talents and entertaining activities.
Sharing videos and vlogs depicting children’s daily lives on social media could place their personal safety and privacy at significant risk.
It further highlighted the risk of photographs and videos uploaded online being misused with artificial intelligence technology to create obscene or inappropriate content involving children.
The Ministry therefore called on parents and guardians to use social media responsibly and exercise greater caution when sharing content involving children, in order to safeguard their safety, privacy and well-being.
Authorities do not routinely monitor photographs and videos of children posted on social media, with action generally being taken when a complaint is made, the Computer Emergency Readiness Team’s (CERT) Lead Information Security Engineer, Charuka Damunupola said. Fielding questions from The Daily Morning yesterday (30), Damunupola said that if a complaint is received about content involving a child and it is found to be harmful, unfair to the child or against the general principles governing social media, the relevant platform could be informed and requested to remove the content. However, Damunupola said that the authorities could not control a parent posting photographs or videos of their own child, as this is considered the parent’s right. If a complaint is received about content that caused harm to a child or violated social media principles, action could be taken. He said that technical assistance could be provided depending on the incident. If the matter involved child abuse, the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) would be informed. If legal action is required, the matter could then be taken forward through the NCPA. The NCPA said that under the existing law, legal action could be taken when nude images of children are shared. However, it stressed that an ethical framework is also needed when children are used in such content. The NCPA also said that guidelines had been introduced on how children should be treated in media reporting and media use. However, these guidelines do not specifically cover children using digital devices.
Attempts to contact the Legal Officer of the NCPA, the subject Minister and the Deputy subject Minister for further comment were unsuccessful.