Legal Research

Facebook Photo Tagging

By Shaunna Mireau

Like most teenagers in Canada, my children have Facebook accounts. Some of the family rules for having a Facebook account is that my children must be my ‘friend’, we have a discussion about privacy settings, and acknowledgment that they know that I am watching their wall and photos for appropriate behaviour. The Mireau Giggles have had to sit through many discussions about privacy, bullying, the longevity of digital media, et cetera, et cetera. It probably drives them nuts, but parenting is a job.

One thing I do not have much control over is who tags them in photos. The only thing I can do is remind my children that in today’s world, they need to take personal responsibility of their public as well as private behaviour, and to educate their friends on responsible use of the Internet, including photo sharing with Facebook.

Evan Brown’s Internet Cases Blog had an interesting post recently about a Facebook photo tagging case from Illinois where an appellate judge confirmed that you don’t need someone’s permission to tag them in a photo on Facebook. The court was speaking to a particular set of facts of course.

Should Facebook users start a permission to photo tag movement? Is it time to change social norms to reflect courtesy in social tagging? Hey Mireau Giggles…think before you act, OK?

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on March 15, 2011 (boomark / email).