A technical error resulted in the faces of two children appearing on the Facebook site of an Australian newspaper.
That error also underlined the importance of “appropriate checks and balances when using new technologies particularly when publishing images of children”, the Australian Press Council said in a recent adjudication.

A print story in The Queensland Times on 1 July 2015 contained an image of an accused person, but the Facebook version, headed “Goodna dad accused of drug, weapons and robbery offences”, included an image of two children not related to the article.

The paper admitted to the error in posting the children’s faces, apologized and offered to assist with having Facebook references removed. However, the Australian Press Council upheld the complaint because of the “serious breach of privacy” and “significant impact on the family and the children”.
At the hearing, the paper noted a new policy of blurring or cropping images of children in its court-related image library, but problems remain in previewing images that will be published on mobile platforms.

Read the full adjudication at: http://www.presscouncil.org.au/document-search/adj-1662/