Smells Like Teen Exploitation: Nirvana's Nevermind Album Lawsuit and its Relation to Child Privacy Rights Online

Abstract

The naked baby on the band Nirvana’s popular album, Nevermind, who is now in his thirties, sued Nirvana and other associated individuals in 2022 on the grounds that the cover of the album depicted child pornography. This note examines the validity of the lawsuit, as well as how “going viral” around the world can affect children, even before the Internet and social media. However, this note specifically assesses how social media can be detrimental on children and their development, especially when those children are social media influencers. Additionally, this note will discuss the current online privacy laws and how they can be improved to better protect one of our society’s most vulnerable population demographics.