VIC 'Publishing on the Internet' - Breach of Intervention Order?

[GlassHalfFull]

Here's an interesting/confusing situation.

I have an intervention order and the protected persons are my ex and my two children. My IVO says I cannot "publish on the internet, by email or other electronic communication any material about the protected person(s)".

I now have supervised visits as ordered by the family court and my first visit will be soon.

My question is, am I allowed to take photos of my children and share them privately with my family (who also have not seen my children in some time and would like to), or is this technically a breach of the intervention order?

It seems ridiculous that this could be considered a breach, and I wonder how anyone could realistically know that the photos even exist anywhere on the internet, but I am yet to find any information on what constitutes 'publishing' in this context. Is it only if it is publicly available information such as Facebook, or does it apply to literally anything that happens to be uploaded to the internet, even privately? Because most phones these days upload the photos to iCloud or Google Photos or whatever by default, but are obviously only available to the owner of the phone.

Obviously the 'safe' option is to disable photo uploads to the internet and keep the photos local to the phone, but I would like to get some 'real world' advice. Has anyone else wondered about this and did you get any legal advice? Surely I'm not the first person to be in this situation, wondering how to approach it.

 

[miguel]

is this technically a breach of the intervention order?? t.

If you post them it is, if your kids post them it isn't.

 

[GlassHalfFull]

If you post them it is, if your kids post them it isn't.

Right. My kids aren't capable of posting them. My question was whether uploading photos to my private account constitutes 'publishing' in the eyes of the law. It seems awfully broad according the wording of the IVO. I mean, technically emailing my family and talking about my supervised visit with the kids counts as 'material' 'published on the internet, by email'.

The IVO therefore even prohibits a conversation on the internet made in private between family members. Technically even discussion about my children with my lawyer is in breach of it. In effect they seem to want me to forget my children actually exist, and make sure nobody else gets to hear about them either.

 

[miguel]

Courts don't work like that for us plebs. I think Joe Gutnick tested what publish to the internet and ownership of content means in the early 2000's, it would have cost millions.

Send photos to family in .zip files via email.

 

[Migz]

Or better yet, file an "Application to vary" and have your children removed from the IVO all together... this was one thing I achieved. Now free to post to social media once again, for interstate family members.

 

[Complex16]

Here's an interesting/confusing situation.

I have an intervention order and the protected persons are my ex and my two children. My IVO says I cannot "publish on the internet, by email or other electronic communication any material about the protected person(s)".

I now have supervised visits as ordered by the family court and my first visit will be soon.

My question is, am I allowed to take photos of my children and share them privately with my family (who also have not seen my children in some time and would like to), or is this technically a breach of the intervention order?

It seems ridiculous that this could be considered a breach, and I wonder how anyone could realistically know that the photos even exist anywhere on the internet, but I am yet to find any information on what constitutes 'publishing' in this context. Is it only if it is publicly available information such as Facebook, or does it apply to literally anything that happens to be uploaded to the internet, even privately? Because most phones these days upload the photos to iCloud or Google Photos or whatever by default, but are obviously only available to the owner of the phone.

Obviously the 'safe' option is to disable photo uploads to the internet and keep the photos local to the phone, but I would like to get some 'real world' advice. Has anyone else wondered about this and did you get any legal advice? Surely I'm not the first person to be in this situation, wondering how to approach it.

Speaking from experience, don’t publish anything. No posts on Facebook or Instagram or even via email. Print out pictures and post them. It might seem trivial, but my ex is currently being raked over the coals for breaching this order. It’s not worth it and demonstrates an inability to follow/comply with the basic of orders which then questions your ability to follow the big ones...

 

[GlassHalfFull]

It might seem trivial, but my ex is currently being raked over the coals for breaching this order

Thanks for your sharing your thoughts and experience. Indeed it does seem trivial. Or at least, it seems to not be what the spirit of the law was intending by restricting 'material about the person(s) being published'... But if there's anything I've learned recently, it's that few authorities care whether something you've done has actually caused harm, but rather whether they are being seen to do their job.

Given that it seems there is no sensible interpretation of what constitutes publishing being used, I will just have to be very careful and at the first opportunity ask for this restriction to be removed, as it seems absurd that I can see my children but can't share a simple photo of them to give to my family.

 

[Complex16]

At the end of the day it comes down to what’s in the best interests of the child, not what’s in the best interests for you. Perhaps it’s not in your child/children’s best interests to have their picture online, regardless of the intended recipient/s. nothing online is private after all.

Want to send pics to family and friends? Find another way that doesn’t breach a court order.

 

[GlassHalfFull]

At the end of the day it comes down to what’s in the best interests of the child, not what’s in the best interests for you. Perhaps it’s not in your child/children’s best interests to have their picture online, regardless of the intended recipient/s. nothing online is private after all.

Want to send pics to family and friends? Find another way that doesn’t breach a court order.

Yes, of course, no need to give me the moral lecture. In my case (and in my opinion, obviously), my children should never have been on the intervention order in the first place and indeed the intervention order was most likely used as a controlling tool, but that's another story for another time. There's no point debating details of whether it's in the best interests of the child though as this isn't really the place to do it.

 

[Complex16]

Sadly it will take some time to prove that (the reasons for the ivo etc). But if you breach the order you give ammo where it shouldn’t be. So apply to have that condition removed by all means but in the meantime follow it to the letter.