Istanbul court bans mother from sharing her children’s pictures on social media in divorce case

ISTANBUL

A court in Istanbul has banned a mother from sharing the pictures of her children on social media in a divorce case. 

The Istanbul Beykoz Family Court has found a father justified in his claims that his wife was “making an invitation for abuse” by sharing their children’s pictures online, daily Vatan reported on June 30.

Savaş İçten filed for divorce from his wife Nihan Kayalıoğlu, who is one of the most famous bloggers in Turkey with over 170,000 followers on Instagram, over “irreconcilable differences.”

As a famous mother blogger, Kayalıoğlu is well-known for sharing pictures of her children almost every day.
In addition to filing for divorce, İçten asked to be entrusted with the guardianship of their children, complaining about his wife sharing the pictures on Instagram.

“By presenting the pictures and videos of our children to the public on social media, my wife is making an invitation for [child] abuse. It’s also unacceptable that she takes my children onto TV shows that she appears on in order to boost her reputation,” İçten told the court. 

He said Kayalıoğlu was exploiting the children’s pictures to increase her public recognition and followers on social media.

The court entrusted the children to their father until the end of the case. It also found İçten’s complaints regarding Kayalıoğlu’s social media posts justified and banned her from sharing her children’s pictures on social media. She will only be able to see her children on the weekends.

The ruling is likely to set a precedent for similar cases.

Kayalıoğlu’s Instagram posts had previously been criticized for “using children for self-publicity.”

“In one of her posts, she gave red lipstick to her daughter and filmed her while she was putting it on,” one social media users said.
Others drew attention to the danger of pedophiles being attracted to the photos.
“When there is such an abomination as pedophilia out there, it bothers me that she can share her children’s pictures in such an unconcerned way,” one user wrote.