Teenagers posting personal photos

Forum Moderators: rogerd

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Teenagers posting personal photos

Steb

2:51 pm on May 23, 2010 (gmt 0)

I run a small community/social network/forum which is mostly used used by people over the age of 18 but younger users have also joined (mainly ages 16-17). I have received a complaint about a 17 year old posting photos of themselves on their profile, in all these photos she is fully clothed but a few photos are in the style that could be best described as "myspace mirror" style shot.

I am wondering to what extent you would remove these photos if at all? and I also wondering about the policies of other sites (e.g. other social networks or photo sharing sites like flickr). I don't really like going through and deleting peoples photos but I am concerned since she is underage.

rogerd

1:57 am on May 25, 2010 (gmt 0)

You should consult your attorney for specific legal requirements that apply to your situation. In general terms, though, you should establish a TOS covering allowable characteristics for photos and enforce it as uniformly as possible. Defining "suggestive" could be a little tricky, of course, if you want to try to set those kinds of limits. Still, if you exercise judgment in a reasonably consistent manner, you shouldn't have too many problems. (I'd expect a few complaints like, "HER photo is worse than mine!")

tangor

2:10 am on May 25, 2010 (gmt 0)

Welcome to Webmasterworld, Steb!

Tricky area as rogerd suggests. Difficult to deal with children on the web these days, and too many countries and laws may apply. One of the reasons I only allow a face shot on the few sites I manage where photos are allowed.

Steb

12:31 am on Jun 6, 2010 (gmt 0)

Thanks for the welcome and the replies, I do have a TOS but as you said it's very difficult to judge or define what is considered suggestive or offensive and these things are very cultural and personal in nature. The facebook Terms just says in regards to posting content that nothing posted is "hateful, threatening, or #*$!ographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.". The photos I mentioned come nothing close to that but I did end up deleting a couple of the photos. It's a tough decision because I don't want to censor peoples photos but I want protect the people on the site.