TOKYO -- The Japanese government warned day care centers, kindergartens and other facilities across the country on May 7 not to publish naked children's photos on their websites as many have been reposted on porn sites.

The Children and Families Agency and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology issued the notice in response to some cases in which images of unclothed children have been misused by third parties. They asked facilities to remove such photos immediately if there are any on their websites.

The Mainichi Shimbun had earlier reported that at least 135 facilities such as day care centers and kindergartens had posted images of their children in the nude on their blogs and elsewhere. Of these, photos from 12 facilities were reposted on overseas porn sites among others, while whole web pages containing images from 80 facilities were duplicated and stored on external sites. In addition, pictures from at least six facilities were incorporated into data used for artificial intelligence training.

The government's notice is in response to this news report and noted, "Posting images containing sexually explicit parts of children on websites and elsewhere and making them browsable to an unspecified number of people is problematic from the standpoint of protecting children's rights." Even when photos are made accessible only to parents, the notice cautions facilities against allowing them to use naked photos and the like inappropriately.

(Japanese original by Hiroyuki Harada and Sahomi Nishimoto, Tokyo City News Department)