In a recent decision dated March 20, 2017 (Ref.: 111/17 EASO), the Hersfeld District Court in Hesse commented on the parental duty to monitor a child’s use of a smartphone.
If a child who is still a minor permanently uses a smartphone with the communication application “WhatsApp”, the parents have a duty of control and supervision.
Underage child uses WhatsApp without supervision
In the case that the Hersfeld District Court had to decide, a minor child used WhatsApp.
This allowed him to stay in contact with his father and a further 20 contacts more or less intensively.
His mother did not supervise the use of the smartphone as far as possible.
Parents must supervise the use
However, such a duty of supervision and monitoring is essential when a minor child uses WhatsApp.
The reason for this is that the WhatsApp service transmits information about the persons stored in its own address book to itself in a non-transparent manner.
This may expose the child to claims for injunctive relief and damages from those affected.
This may also put the minor’s assets at risk.
Parents must obtain written consent from all contact persons
The legal guardians – i.e. the parents – must therefore take appropriate protective measures to protect the child’s welfare.
One such protective measure is the required duty of control and supervision.
When using WhatsApp, parents must therefore obtain a written declaration of consent from all contacts on the child’s smartphone.
If this is not possible within a period of 2 months, the parents must remove the application from the child’s smartphone.
Mother must also inform herself about how to deal with the media
In addition, the Hersfeld District Court ordered the child’s mother to inform herself monthly about the use of digital media.
The judgment states:
The mother of the child is ordered to undergo further training on the internet platform \”Klicksafe\” – EU initiative for more safety online – on the subject of digital media use.
The child’s mother is obliged to read at least three topic reports of her choice in full each month (this can be done at the Internet address (URL) www.klicksafe.de/themen/ ; first select a topic of your choice by clicking in the column on the left, then select a specific report in the topic box in the middle below the respective white heading on a green background \”klicksafe informs\”).
Compliance with the obligation shall be monitored within the time limits set out in section 4.
Similar ruling already in 2016
With this ruling, the Hersfeld District Court follows on from its decision of July 22, 2016 (Ref.: F 361/16 EASO).
Here, too, the court ruled in favor of the parents’ duty to monitor and supervise.
Following sexting incidents, the father of the family had to check his daughters’ cell phones and delete the WhatsApp application.