There was a picture of the actress julie Goodyear( bet lynch from corrie) shared by her husband. She has dementia and is 83. She looks most frail and unhealthy and is missing teeth etc. And generally in a huge physical decline that comes with illness and age.
Obviously with dementia she’d not be able to consent to this photo been shared but am I wrong in thinking this is a huge violation and shouldn’t be allowed to be made public in these circumstances?
It was the same with the actess who played zoe in eastenders. She shared a photo of her very elderly grandmother who just died and the poor woman is on her deathbed and frail and ill looking and not of sound mind. I’m thinking none of us would want these pictures shared of us in our most vulnerable and unflattering states.
Am I wrong to thing social media should ban this?
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I think her husband is probably better placed to know her wishes than strangers.
I always think this when people post pictures of their grandparents, I never post anyone who isn’t on social media.
I would imagine her husband has Power of Attorney and made the decision on her behalf.
Yes i do.
I’m actually disgusted by her husband. Nobody needed to see a picture of her looking like that. He could have given out the information without the awful photo
I thought the reaction to that picture was bizarre and very distasteful. As far as I could tell, it was a nice picture of an elderly lady looking very happy after a pleasant day out for her birthday. The fact that people got weird about it because she didn’t meet their standards for glamour really rubbed my fur the wrong way.
The photos made me feel so uncomfortable, I know he took them down and I think posting them wasn’t his best move.
It would be a difficult ban to enforce. I can’t imagine the checks that would be needed. Then if you go to a family gathering and post a group photo will that be wrong as someone in the group may not have the ability to consent… or may just be totally unaware it’s been shown to anyone outside the group. Not sure how to avoid it happening.
Do you think the same for children too?
Honestly I don’t think people should be posting photos of other people at all. Including of their kids it just seems so exploitative.
doesn’t really matter what she wants tbh. One of these people is dead and the other one is too demented to even know what’s happening. Their loved one’s wishes are more important. Perhaps it’s also valuable to show these things to us rather than hide them away; this is real life, it’s shit we all have to face, let’s put it in the open and talk honestly about it.
If my brain falls out then my family can put a picture of my bumhole on the internet for all I (can) care
Awful for the poor woman who didn’t/can’t consent. Having said that, there’s no need for her to look like that, dementia or not! Who’s looking after her? Him?
I don’t think anyone not capable of giving full consent of their images being posted online should be, including children. I find it so bloody weird when people record their family with Alzheimer’s and post them online, if I ever got that poorly that I didn’t recognise my own child I’d hate for that to be recorded and be a lasting memory of me for others.
I just wanna clarify, just because someone has dementia does not mean they don’t have capacity or the ability to consent.
All I keep seeing OP say is that she didn’t “consent”.
My mum had Alzheimers before she died, there was a lot she could not consent to, this post is beyond triggering from someone who lacks empathy and life experience.
Important to note, just because a person has a diagnosis of dementia doesn’t mean they aren’t able to make any decisions for themselves. Mental capacity assessments are time and decision specific.
It’s a grey area. People only post things on social media for attention. A FB friend posted a picture of her grandmother in a hospice. The poor woman was clearly out of it on morphine, but everyone in the picture is posing around her bed.
It’s generally distasteful, I feel the same about people who constantly post pictures of their kids on socials. Those kids can’t consent and have no privacy. Another FB friend once posted a picture of a turd in a potty, captioned “Proud mummy moment x”. I’d hate to be a kid now.
Apparently the OP is close to the family because they are claiming that she was unable to consent…
Or they are full of crap and have absolutely no idea what discussions took place between husband and wife when she was first diagnosed and they just dislike seeing old people with dementia..
I wonder which one is the most likely?
My grandmother passed away at 96 some months ago, and the year prior my Aunt (her daughter) looked after her for a week whilst me & my family were on holiday. Two days in, there were very public Facebook posts made by her featuring deeply unflattering photos of her eating cake and somesuch.
I don’t think it should be socially acceptable, but banning is something I’m not interested in.
We don’t need more useless hardly enforceable regulation.
No, I don’t think it should be banned. Who would be banning it? Who would decide whether the picture is ban worthy or not?
No matter the diagnosis of the person, consent can fluctuate, and a person with capacity even if they have dementia can make their own decisions, and did they say what stage of dementia she is at. Do you think at the point of diagnosis of dementia a person should have autonomy disregard. It just doesn’t work like that. So it might have been her idea, and again, someone deemed to have capacity and/or not dementia has a right to make decisions even if those decisions go against the care givers advice.
I think if they don’t have the ability to consent, just like children, they shouldn’t be on there.
I have a family member with dementia but he’s alert enough at the moment to give consent. His daughter usually uploads a happy Christmas photo of them all together, for example, or dancing to some music. While all of this, he doesn’t remember 2 minutes ago.
When it reaches a point where they’re struggling to understand what they’re saying yes to, then it’s no good. But then that’s down to the individual uploading, social media can’t determine someone’s state of mind.
I would circumvent the problem and ban social media.
Or at the very least, foreign owned ones.
What you’re asking for is for people to prioritize treating one another with respect rather than trying to make money or gain traction. Personally, I support that.
But the people who own social media will never do that.
No, we need to see reality.
She has dementia – nothing indicates she lacks the ability in the moment to consent.
People with dementia don’t just instantly lack all facilities (which is why the law in this space is so complex).
Who. Fucking. Cares.
Who says she didn’t consent? And if she lacks capacity, her husband is allowed to consent for her.
The issue is enforcing it. Do you blanket ban, meaning nobody can post pictures of/with children and the elderly? Can they post pictures of themselves, or does someone need to verify consent? Do you have one rule for public figures and another for the general public? What about post death?
The better solution would be to make it socially acceptable for people to age naturally, rather than trying to cover up and hide that from people. And to accept that in the digital age, our image will end up online from time to time.
AFAIK theres no consent required for anyone being filmed/photoed etc and posted on social media. So i dont understand the mechanism for the bar to be different for those who ‘cant consent’.
Should we as a society scrutinise what’s acceptable to post online a little more? Yes.
Should we start outright banning certain things from being posted at all? Absolutely not.
What’s acceptable should be done on a societal and cultural level, not an authoritarian one, please.