How to Get Photos of Your Child Removed
How to Get Photos of Your Child Removed

by Nicholas Pell

You might not mind posting pictures of your kids online. But sometimes parents find pictures of their children that they didn't post. Fortunately, the service terms of most major social networks -- not to mention the law -- are firmly on your side when it comes to unauthorized pictures of your children on the Internet.

Image Privacy Rights Across Social Media

When it comes to the law, children have a right to privacy far above what grownups have. If your child is under the age of 13, all you have to do is fill out a form to have your child's picture removed from Facebook. When it comes to an older child, you can't really do anything unless your child is mentally handicapped. Your child can, however, submit a request to have their image removed.

Twitter is a little harder, regardless of the child's age. Twitter won't respond to anything but a copyright violation. What this means is that if someone else takes a picture of your child, they can basically do what they want with it. Technically speaking, you don't have any right to remove an image of your child unless it otherwise violates the terms of service. (Facebook is basically just doing you a nice favor by making it easier than Twitter does. Instagram, as a part of Facebook, has virtually identical rules when it comes to removing your children's pictures.)

Note that a picture doesn't have to be in the slightest way inappropriate for you to have it removed from Facebook or Instagram. All you have to do is fill out a form saying that you want it down -- no explanation required. If you prefer, you can always contact the posting party directly to save them the trouble and embarrassment of getting Facebook involved. Still, if they refuse, you can have the picture removed.

Rules for removing children's pictures from social media aren't cut and dry. The easiest way to keep your kids off of social media?

Don't post their pictures there, don't let other people post any, and keep your kids out of other people's photos. Otherwise, you're rolling the dice on how and where your kids will appear online.

Parenting: "How to Get Photos of Your Child Removed"