facebook blocks mom for nude pic

Durban - A Durban woman has been kicked off Facebook this week for posting a photograph of her bare-bottomed toddler on the social media website.

The move has raised questions about censorship, privacy and the legal rights of parents who in South Africa can face prosecution for posting nude pictures of their children.

The Bellair mother of three – who asked that she not be named – was forced to remove the photograph. It had been taken over a year ago, so she could not find a copy, but she on Tuesday described it as a cute shot of her baby boy playing dress-up.

It showed the child wearing his older sister’s shoes and holding a doll.

She had typed the words, “In his sister’s shoes,” alongside the picture.

It was taken from the side, with “nothing showing”, she explained.

Her son, now two-and-a-half, was “tiny” at the time, she said. “How that is offensive, I have no clue.”

After the photograph was reported by an unknown user, Facebook blocked her profile.

She could not access Facebook on her phone and realised something was strange when she discovered she was not receiving notifications of tags.

When she tried to log into Facebook on a computer, she discovered a message from Facebook, informing her that before she could, the photograph had to be taken down because of nudity-related policies.

She had to delete the photograph and agree “not to do it again”.

After she deleted the photograph and posted about the incident on Facebook, other users reacted with shock, calling the person who reported her “disgusting” and “childish”.

One wrote, “That’s insane. Don’t people have better things to do?”

She had a private profile, she said, and her only “friends” were people she knew.

The mother said she thought it was “pathetic” and was angry.

“Why didn’t they just send me a message?” she said of the user who reported the photograph.

Social media law expert, Emma Sadleir, said Facebook had its own set of policies and that when you signed up, you agreed to abide by them.

It had a no-nudity policy, she went on, and the only exceptions were pictures of breast-feeding women and pictures of mastectomy scars.

She said if someone reported a photograph, its removal was at Facebook’s discretion.

“And there is no appeal process,” she added.

Sadleir also pointed out that almost three years ago, the Child Protection Act was amended and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) could now prosecute any parent who posted a naked picture of their child – regardless of context or intent – on social media as it was considered pornography.

“I don’t agree with it myself, I consider pornographic material to have to be intended to stimulate erotic excitement. But that’s what the NPA says.”

The UK’s Telegraph last month reported that parents in France were being warned not to post pictures of their children on social networks and that the children could end up filing charges against or suing them, if they did.

France, the report said, had strict privacy laws and parents could be sentenced to prison time or hefty fines if they did not heed the warning.

Sadleir said she would never post a naked picture of her child on Facebook.

“I wish that I was being alarmist but I deal with these cases on a day-to-day basis,” she said.

She also said even if you had a private profile, it was just too easy for pictures you posted to land up on child pornography websites.

“You might not know all your ‘friends’ or, even if you do, all their ‘friends’,” Sadleir said.

A Facebook spokesperson said the photograph in question had been flagged because it violated Facebook’s community standards.

“We restrict the display of nudity because some audiences within our global community may be sensitive to this type of content – particularly because of their cultural background or age. In order to treat people fairly and respond to reports quickly, it is essential we have policies in place that our global teams can apply uniformly and easily when reviewing content. As a result, our policies can sometimes be more blunt than we would like and restrict content shared for legitimate purposes,” she said.