A brave new world11/28/2022 ![]() Legally, birth parents may not have any contact with the children they have released for adoption until a child is 18, and then only if the child agrees to that contact and after a great deal of counselling on both sides. They know each other’s first names and birth parents are sent photos of the children. Well, in non-disclosed adoptions, birth parents and adoptive parents have limited contact mediated through a social worker. You might be wondering what on earth adoption has got to do with photos on social networking sites. And it’s not just because I’m wary of the remote possibility of paedophiles or cyberbullies, but mostly because my children are adopted. I’d really love to share pictures of them with my Facebook and blogger friends, but I don’t. Like every parent, I think my children are the most fabulous in the world. Remember the trauma experienced by a 14-year-old Johannesburg girl last year who became a victim of cyberbullying? Cyberbullying of this sort happens, even in South Africa. What if someone has a vendetta against one of the girls? They can easily show her in compromising positions and remove clothing with digital imaging software. Just being tagged in a photo by someone else makes your image available. Once you’ve posted an image it becomes public property and you have no control over how it is used. All done in innocence but what happens if someone else downloads one of those pictures and manipulates the image? They are beautiful young girls and in some of those photos they are wearing swimwear, pyjamas and shorts. My teenage nieces have dozens of albums of photos of themselves and their friends on Facebook. Sesihlonziwe isisulu 'samazimuzimu' ase-Estcourt ![]()
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