Odense, Denmark – December 5, 2025 – A 50-year-old Danish woman has been given a 14-day suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay 10,000 Danish kroner (approximately £1,150 or €1,200) in compensation to her own daughter after posting graphic photographs of her grandson’s birth on Facebook without the mother’s permission.
The four images, taken several years ago while the grandmother was present in the delivery suite, showed the mother’s exposed abdomen during the actual birth and the newborn baby immediately afterwards. They were uploaded to the grandmother’s public Facebook profile with the caption “My first grandchild.”
The photos remained online unnoticed until November this year, by which time the child had already started first grade. When the mother discovered them, she was horrified and demanded their immediate removal. The grandmother initially complied and deleted the pictures.
However, after learning that her daughter had reported the matter to police and that criminal charges were likely, the grandmother reposted the same images in an act the court later described as “deliberate and defiant.” The daughter then filed a formal complaint for serious violation of privacy.
The case was heard at Odense District Court on the island of Funen. The grandmother chose not to attend the hearing. Prosecutors successfully argued that the images constituted sensitive personal and health data, and that publishing them on a public social-media platform removed any claim to the “purely personal or household” exemption under both Danish criminal law and the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Judge Lars Nielsen ruled that the non-consensual sharing of such intimate medical moments represented a clear infringement of the mother’s personal integrity and bodily privacy. The 14-day prison sentence was suspended, therefore, suspended on condition of good behaviour; should the grandmother commit a similar offence within the probation period, she will serve the full term. The court also awarded the daughter 10,000 kroner in damages for the emotional distress caused by the repeated violation.
The case has sparked intense discussion across Denmark about the boundaries of family sharing family milestones online. Many older Danes have expressed sympathy for the grandmother, viewing the punishment as excessively harsh for what they see as an over-enthusiastic celebration of a new grandchild. Women’s rights and child-protection organisations, however, have welcomed the verdict as an important precedent that reinforces parental control over images of childbirth and minors.
Privacy experts point out that the ruling aligns with earlier European cases, including a widely publicised 2020 Dutch decision in which a grandmother was ordered to delete photos of her grandchildren from Facebook and Pinterest under threat of daily fines. Those cases established that when images of children or intimate medical situations are posted publicly, the “sharenting” loses its private character and falls under strict data-protection rules.
In the aftermath, the daughter – who has spoken to the media only anonymously to protect her son – said the reposting felt like a second betrayal: “The first time was thoughtless; the second time was meant to hurt.” She has since removed all family members from her own social-media accounts and enrolled in counselling. The boy remains unaware of the legal proceedings.
The grandmother, whose identity is protected by court order, has closed her Facebook profile and expressed regret through her lawyer, insisting she never intended harm and simply wanted to share her joy. Mediation sessions between mother and daughter are ongoing, but family sources describe relations as “severely damaged.”
The verdict is being cited by Denmark’s Data Protection Agency in new public-awareness campaigns warning that even well-meaning grandparents can face criminal liability for posting photos of births, medical procedures, or children without explicit consent from those with parental responsibility.
As Denmark, with one of Europe’s highest rates of social-media use and a strong culture of privacy rights, is seeing a steady rise in family-related GDPR complaints. Legal commentators predict the Odense ruling will be referenced in courtrooms for years to come whenever intimate images are shared online without permission.
For now, the quiet streets of Funen carry an unusually loud message: the delivery room may be filled with love, but the moment a camera connects to the internet, love alone is no longer enough, consent is everything.
