Protection Of Children’S Right To Personal Portrayal

The right to personal portrayal is a component of personality, along with the right to privacy and private life. These are rights that require special and enhanced protection, especially in case of children, given the need to protect their healthy development. The child has the right to personal identity and is the owner of these rights. Parents have an important role in defending the right of personal portrayal of the child, acting through various means to respect the child's right to privacy and private life against interference of third parties and stopping the public display of the child’s image. However, in many cases the use of the child's images require the consent of the parents or guardians of the child. An important aspect regarding the role of parents in protecting the rights of personal portrayal of the child is the fact that there are some restrictions regarding their behaviour in order to protect their children's rights, because often parents are violating these rights or unconsciously expose their children and their image, in order to gain personal advantage or influence the decisions of public authorities. An important aspect in the treatment of this topic is the delimitation of the right of personal portrayal from the right to freedom of expression, which is often difficult. The right of personal portrayal of children must also be analysed in the context of sharing images on social networks, a phenomenon related to everyday life. In most cases, parents are the ones, who distribute images of their children and, although, this behaviour most often seems to be innocent, on the other hand, may be responsible for attracting users with deviant behaviour. Exploitation of children’s images for advertisement, advertising, entertainment, modelling or cultural, artistic or sports represent a number of peculiarities. The protection of children’s right to personal portrayal must be analysed taking into account the safeguards and remedies offered by both the national and the European legislation.