Safeguarding the image rights of child athletes

IMAGES of children participating in sport are widespread across social media, club websites, newsletters and broadcasts.

- BELINDA MATORE

While such images celebrate achievement and community, they also expose minors to risks such as exploitation, cyberbullying, identity theft and digital permanence.

In South Africa, legal protection for children’s images arises from the Constitution, common law personality rights and the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).

Yet these frameworks only partially address how children’s images intersect with safeguarding in digital environments. Image rights should be situated within a child-safeguarding framework, guided by the constitutional principle that the best interests of the child are paramount. The right to be forgotten, constitutional principles and international child rights norms are central to protecting the digital identity of child athletes.

While South African law does not recognise a statutory “image right’, constitutional and common law principles safeguard identity and likeness.

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Grutter v Lombard (2007) confirmed that using a person’s image without consent is unlawful under the actio iniuriarum, which is a common-law remedy that protects an individual's personality rights, including dignity, privacy and identity, against intentional and wrongful infringement.

While the case concerned an adult, the reasoning extends to minors - that the unauthorised commercial exploitation of a child’s image infringes their personality rights. In Kumalo v Cycle Lab (Pty) Ltd (2011), the unauthorised use of a celebrity's photograph was held to violate her rights to identity, privacy and dignity.