Document Type
Article
Abstract
In the current era of social media, parents and others constantly post pictures and reveal information about children on the Internet. As of 2010, ninety-two percent of children had an online presence by the age of two. This Note will examine whether parents and others’ use of social media infringe on the privacy rights of children and what protections a recent California statute gives to children’s digital privacy.
A recent case sheds light on this emerging issue. In Sakala v. Milunga, the plaintiff alleged the defendants induced her to come the United States from Zambia and then held her as an involuntary servant for nearly ten months. In November 2014, the plaintiff accepted an offer to work for the defendants for one year, which included caring for their minor son. During this time, the plaintiff took prosaic photographs of the child and posted them on Facebook. The plaintiff was never paid for any work she performed for the defendants. Thus, the plaintiff sought damages in federal court from the defendants under international, federal, and Maryland state law.
The defendants counterclaimed. Among the six counts raised in the counterclaim, the last count alleged that the plaintiff infringed on the defendants’ right of privacy by publishing pictures of their minor child on Facebook without consent. The district court dismissed all six counterclaims, stating that each “fail allege essential elements, are stated in conclusory fashion, and rely on rampant speculation.” The dismissal of the privacy claim was based on historic child privacy laws that were not tailored to the digital age.
Recommended Citation
Michael Shepherd,
Child Privacy in the Digital Age and California's Child Deletion Statute,
23 J. Tech. L. & Pol'y
(2018).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/jtlp/vol23/iss1/4