Recently, there are a number of posts on children on Gotoknow. They include clear pictures of the children under difficult circumstances.
If these stories were reported in newspaper or on TV, their name would have been withheld and their pictures would have been smeared so that they could not be identified even pictorially.
Is reporting on the Internet different from reporting on newspaper and TV? UNICEF and major news agencies do not think so. They have spend great resources and care to put in place "Code of Practice" for reporting "children" news.
UNICEF of UN has declared for some time now the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). BBC (UK) and AP (US) have written directives on reporting on children. Most countries have adopted or adapted CRC and BBC Code of Practice.
Though it is not clear if any code of practice is being applied in Thailand for reporting on "minors", Gotoknow's webmaster should consider adopting certain code of practice (and must according to [หน้าที่และความรับผิดชอบของผู้ดูแลเว็บ พ.ร.บ.คอมพิวเตอร์ ๒๕๕๐] (http://www.gotoknow.org/blogs/posts/489655).
Gotoknow bloggers should and must consider this too for the sake of the children involved and the sake of Gotoknow's reputation and possible litigation.
*Please see*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_%28law%29
In law, a minor is a person under a certain age — usually the age of majority — which legally demarcates childhood from adulthood; the age depends upon jurisdiction and application, but is typically 18. "Minor" may also be used in contexts not connected to the overall age of majority; for example, the drinking age in the United States is 21, and people below this age are sometimes referred to as "minors" even if 18.[citation needed] The term underage is often used to refer to those under the age of majority, but may also refer to persons who are under a certain age limit, such as the drinking age, smoking age, age of consent, marriageable age, driving age, voting age etc., with these age limits often being different than the age of majority.
In Australia the term 'juvenile' is used instead of 'minor'.
http://www.unicef.org/magic/users/media_guide4.html :
Children
journalist code of practice involving minors.
<for example UK's BBC reporting...:
Children in sex cases
1 The press must not, even where the law does not prohibit it, identify children under the age of 16 who are involved in cases concerning sexual offences, whether as victims, or as witnesses.
2 In any press report of a case involving a sexual offence against a child
(i) The child must not be identified.
(ii) The adult may be identified.
(iii) The word 'incest' must not be used where a child victim might be identified.
(iv) Care must be taken that nothing in the report implies the relationship between the accused and the child.
> (Note. Photographs are a form of identification.)
and Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Thai version is available for download from
http://www.unicef.org/magic/briefing/uncorc.html
< see in particular article 39>
หน้าที่และความรับผิดชอบของผู้ดูแลเว็บ พ.ร.บ.คอมพิวเตอร์ ๒๕๕๐
http://www.gotoknow.org/blogs/posts/489655
สุดยอดท่าน SR คิดเรื่องนี้ได้ไง ชลัญนึกไม่ถึงเหมือนกัน ขอบคุณค่ะ
ทำให้ชลัญมานึกต่อยอด การทำสัญลักษณ์ ติดบนซองยาผู้ป่วย เพราะทุกวันนี้ชอบทิ้งยาเกลื่อนไปหมด เผื่อเห็นจะได้กระตุ้นต่อมสำนึกว่า เก็บได้แล้ว อันตรายนะ ประมาณนี้
Happy ba ค่ะ ชลัญให้นิยามความสุขท่าน SR ว่า สุขอนัตตา ค่ะ
One may offer an excuse that the pictures (or any identity items) are shown (in public) with the minor's consent.
Legally, minors cannot make any consent -- because they are "minors".
Minors may post pictures of themselves on media, because there is no law against minors doing this. There are however laws against persons posting pictures of minors (especially in circumstances that may "hinder" their return into main stream society).
There is also ground for litigation -- suing the person(s) who post(ed) minors' identity items (whether or not these items form a complete identification) and claiming for compensation.
For example. If a teenager mother later chooses to offer her child for adoption and to start a new life as unencumbered woman, a picture of her with her child may "hinder" her chance of entering the mainstream society (ie. as a normal unmarried woman). That is now a ground for litigation against the person(s) posting her picture. The fact that she has agreed to have her pictures posted is not valid because she is (was) a minor at the time.
As for the webmaster: failing to observe the code of practice in regard to dealing with minors may result in having to make partial compensation.
This issue deserves careful considerations. UNICEF's CRC and BBC's Code of Practice capture concerns on this issue.
เห็นด้วยอย่างยิ่งค่ะอาจารย์และขอบพระคุณมากค่ะ ดิฉันเองก็นึกไม่ถึงจึงไม่ได้สังเกตเห็นบันทึกเหล่านั้นที่ อ. กล่าวถึงค่ะ รบกวนช่วยแจ้งลิงก์บันทึกที่พบเจอให้ด้วยนะคะ และทางดิฉันจะเข้าไปชี้แจงเจ้าของบันทึกเอง และจะทำการเขียนเป็นนโยบายในการบันทึกลง GotoKnow ต่อไปค่ะ
เราต้องช่วยกันแจ้งไปยังผู้ดูแลด้วยการคลิกตรงลิงค์ที่มีไว้ให้แล้วนะคะ ต้องชม GotoKnow ที่มีตัวช่วยไว้ให้เราช่วยกันดูแลอยู่แล้วนะคะ วัฒนธรรมการรักษาสิทธิขั้นพื้นฐานของเรายังไม่เข้มแข็งนะคะ เจ้าของเรื่องเองก็ไม่รู้สิทธิของตัวเอง เราที่รู้ต้องช่วยๆกันปกป้อง
ขอบคุณค่ะ เรื่องเกี่ยวกับสิทธิเด็ก
ในส่วนตัวแล้วคิดว่าต้องกลับไปศึกษาให้ละเอียดอีกครั้ง
และเพิ่งทราบว่าอาจกระทบและมีผลต่อวันข้างหน้าของเด็ก
ที่จะเติบโต เป็นผู้ใหญ่ เป็นกำลังที่ดีของสังคม
ขอบคุณค่ะ ถือเป็นคำเตือนสติในการเขียน และลงรูปภาพ
I have another example of how attention to Children Rights is given by the press in UK:
Anti-immigration couple lose foster kids 25 Nov 2012 - 04:24am Three ethnic children have been taken away from their foster parents because they support anti-immigration...
The couple from Yorkshire in northern England said they had been fostering children for seven years but have been told by social workers that they were not suitable because of UKIP's calls for curbs on immigration to Britain.
Education Secretary .. said the decision was "indefensible" and opposition Labour leader..., whose party runs the local authority involved, called for an urgent investigation into the "very disturbing" claims.
UKIP leader..., a member of the European Parliament, said the situation was "appalling" and "disgraceful".
He accused the council of bigotry, insisting that decisions on foster care should be "colour-blind".
Following the outcry, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council announced it would launch an investigation into the actions of its staff.
The couple involved told the Daily Telegraph newspaper they had been "stigmatised and slandered" by the removal of the baby girl, boy and older girl they had been caring for for eight weeks.
The decision came after two officials visited to question them about their membership of UKIP, Britain's fourth-biggest party which campaigns for an end to Britain's membership of the European Union and a freeze on immigration.
The woman, a qualified nursery nurse, said the social worker told her: "We would not have placed these children with you had we known you were members of UKIP because it wouldn't have been the right cultural match".
She asked what UKIP had to do with the decision, "then one of them said, 'Well, UKIP have got racist policies'. The implication was that we were racist."
Hi
ชลัญธร
...ชลัญมานึกต่อยอด การทำสัญลักษณ์ ติดบนซองยาผู้ป่วย เพราะทุกวันนี้ชอบทิ้งยาเกลื่อนไปหมด เผื่อเห็นจะได้กระตุ้นต่อมสำนึกว่า เก็บได้แล้ว อันตรายนะ ประมาณนี้ ...
This is part of a wider moral issue: *Social Responsibilty*
- we have failures in both *public responsibity* and *corporate responsibility*
-- smoking in public, littering streets and public areas, grafitis,...
-- false adverising, giving false information, mis-labelling, lying and hiding facts,...
* Important social foundation like **honesty**, **trust**, and **decency** is eroding while more and more people are focusing on economy (**survival**). *
If Drug (met, coke,...), sin-products (cigarette, alcohol,...), child sex and many others are Key Performance Index (KPI) of society, what would Thai society look?
What should our society be? Would we try, really try, to make it so?