Norwegian rules for sharing private photos and videos

NORWEGIAN LAW: You must obtain consent before sharing photos and videos of others. But there are exceptions.

19.01.2022|Av Sjur Jansen|Kids and media

Choose language in the Google-box below. Some translations may be flawed or inaccurate.

Illegal to share: In Norway you cannot freely publish photos of others even if you are the photographer because personal photos are considered personal information. See the Personal Information Act here. It also applies in closed social groups. A group of 20-30 members is enough that you cannot share photos freely. In the case of nude photos, it can be punishable even to display those on your own screen.

Secret address: Also remember that some adults and children may live at a secret address to avoid a violent person or a group. Sharing photos without consent may lead them to relocate to a new secret address.

Nude photos: Sharing nude photos without consent is punishable by up to a two-year prison sentence. And children may have their phones confiscated by the police.

You must get consent before sharing photos

Ask for permission: Before you share a photo or video on social media, you must have the consent of the persons being photographed. This also applies to live streaming. That means you have to ask them for permission, and that has to happen before the photo or video is published. You can’t share if they say no. They don’t have to give you any reason to say no.

Must be voluntary: When you ask for consent, it must not be perceived as peer pressure, rather in a way that must be easy to say no.

No passive consent: You can’t ask for passive consent. You can’t write like “If you don’t answer, I’ll perceive it as a yes.” Posing in a photo, such as smiling and waving at you when taking photos with your phone, is not the same as saying yes to the photos being published.

Must ask the parents: If it is a child, you must ask the parents for consent. Children also have an increasing right to have their own opinions.

Say what the image will be used for: When you ask for consent, you must tell them what the image will be used for and where so that they know what they are giving consent to.

Does not have to be in writing: Oral consent is all right. However, in some situations, you may want to obtain written consent, for example by email, so that they cannot claim that you have proceeded illegally. This applies, for example, if you take pictures on class trips or training.

Right to withdraw consent: Persons who have given you consent to share the image publicly can withdraw their consent at any time, without having to give any reason. You need to remove the image then.

Read about the rules for valid consent (The Norwegian Data Protection Authority), or see the law.

Exceptions for photo sharing

Some countries have more liberal rules than Norway, and photos are shared quite freely there. In Norway, you must obtain consent, but there are a few exceptions:

Not the main motive: You don’t need to get consent if “the person is less important than the main content of the image,” for example, a tourist passing in the background when taking a portrait of a friend. If you have taken a picture of, for instance, three people talking together, all three are the main motives, so you must ask for the consent of all three.

Crowd: You can share photos of the 17^th May (National Day) procession or the audience at a concert without asking for consent. But the premise is that the situation is harmless and not offensive.

News image: For ‘affairs or events that are of public interest,’ you can share photos without consent, such as news images. It’s not in the public interest that your aunt stumbled upon the cream cake at her graduation, so you can’t share that picture without her consent. Put simply, you might think, ‘Would a newspaper have an interest in using my picture?’

Here’s the legal text.

You mustn’t be troublesome

Don’t be pushy: You can’t take someone’s photo in such a way that you have intimidating or distressing behavior. Article 266.

Not through the neighbor’s window: You can’t break privacy; you can’t film in through the neighbor’s window. But you can usually take photos of the house itself. Article 267.

Storing photos is usually legal

You took a picture of your aunt falling with the cream cake. It is allowed to have such images stored. It is only when you want to publish the image that you have to think about consent and other rules. However, there are some images that are illegal to have saved:

Nudes: It is illegal to store nude photos of people under the age of 18, and it applies to images that you’ve received too. Such images must be deleted immediately unless you are going to show them to the police as evidence. Read more about nude photos.

What if you don’t own the picture?

You are not allowed to share photos that are owned by other people; you must ask permission. Maybe the photographer says no, maybe the photographer wants you to pay, it’s up to the photographer, not you. There seems to be a lot here. Many people think it is free to copy other people’s films, photos, and articles. However, it has become common for photographers and writers to send high invoices when someone steals what they have made.

How to get your photos deleted?

Start at the lowest conflict level if you want to remove an image that someone shared without your consent. That means you start with the person who shared the photo and then ask that to delete. If the person doesn’t want to or doesn’t respond, go to the next step. Here are the steps:

Contact the person who shared the
Contact those who own the website or app.
Contact someone who can help. Slettmeg.no provides advice and help regarding this.
Contact Datatilsynet (Norwegian Data Protection Authority).
Contact Konfliktrådet (the Conflict Council).
Contact the police. If you believe that the information published is so serious that it must be removed quickly, you should contact the police. Take screenshots and documents of the person who has shared and where and when it’s shared.

Show respect for the child

Ask the child if it is okay to share the picture and respect the answer. Do not put pressure like ‘But it does not matter to share this picture?’
Children in unfortunate situations might be fun to share with the family, but it may not be necessary to share that with the whole world.
Feel free to use low resolution when sharing pictures of children. Do not enter your full name. Avoid nudity. Make sure that location data is not included in the file or the publication. Be careful with one’s medical history.
According to Unicef, parents share an average of over 1,100 photos of their child before the age of 12. Think about what’s best for your child before you share photos. Do you share photos for the sake of your child or for yourself to achieve something?
Be careful when sharing photos with TV companies. The editorial team may show your exact picture in the TV show, which you may think is cool now, but it means that it is much more difficult to have the picture removed if you regret it later. It is easier to remove images posted on a website than images that have been filmed by a TV camera.

Teach your child which photos are okay to share

Very many children participate in social media from a young age. They also participate in digital school solutions where it is possible to share photos. Talk to your child about what kind of photos are okay to share and which ones should be perceived as too private. For example, is it okay for your child to take a picture of you in your panties when you brush your teeth? What about pictures of your bank card or old family albums? Pictures of the little sister screaming in protest? Pictures of the neighboring children?