Jurisprudential and Legal Analysis of the Social Impacts of Using Children's Images in Cyberspace

ARJOMANDIFARD, MANSUREH

doi:10.22082/cr.2025.2074192.2859

Jurisprudential and Legal Analysis of the Social Impacts of Using Children's Images in Cyberspace

Document Type : Original Article

Author

MANSUREH ARJOMANDIFARD

Assistant Professor, Department of Jurisprudence and Fundamentals of Islamic Law, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

10.22082/cr.2025.2074192.2859

Abstract

The present study aims to provide a jurisprudential and legal analysis of the social impacts of using children’s images in cyberspace, focusing on dimensions such as children's rights, privacy, and legal responsibilities. Accordingly, the research—emphasizing the enhancement of public and parental awareness regarding children’s rights and the social consequences of publishing images online—first explains the right to image and its position within children’s rights, and then focus on the jurisprudential aspects related to image publication and its effects on children’s identity and mental well-being. This study was conducted by qualitative approach a documentary research method, with data collected through the review and analysis of jurisprudential sources, legal documents, and relevant online content. The findings indicate that failure to observe children’s right to image in cyberspace results in the violation of multiple rights, including the rights to mental health, security, privacy, online identity, human dignity, and self-determination, and also creates grounds for the sexual exploitation of their images. Finally —based on the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the role of parental decision-making—the primary criterion for publishing a child’s image is the observance of his or her “best interests”. In necessary cases to publish, the image must comply with religious norms, and any image depicting an inappropriate statue or cloths of the child must be avoided.

Keywords

children's rights

cyberspace

right to image

social impacts

protection of children's rights.

Subjects