Four Irish publications failed to have regard for the vulnerability of children in their coverage of a case between two parents and Ralph Lauren, the Press Ombudsman has found.

Julie and Robert Duhy received a settlement of €17,500 after they took a civil case against the clothing company, saying the elastic on a pair of its baby pants was too strong and caused their daughter to sustain red welts on her thighs.

The parents had received the pants as a present and initiated the action against the manufacturer on behalf of their daughter.

The settlement was reported in most national newspapers, many of them using photographs of the Duhy’s daughter obtained from YouTube.

The Duhys complained that the reports breached the Press Council’s Code of Practice, and in particular that the publication of the photograph of their young child breached Principle 9 (Children), which states: “journalists and editors should have regard for the vulnerability of children”.

Four of the complaints were upheld by the Press Ombudsman. The decision against the Irish Daily Mail, Evoke.ie, the Irish Daily Star and the Sun.ie was reached despite the parents uploading images of their child on a website with no privacy restrictions.

The Press Ombudsman decided that the purpose for which the parents had uploaded images of their daughter had to be taken into account in any decision to publish those images.

The Press Ombudsman found that there was no breach of the Code of Practice in the text of any of the reports, just in the publication of the images of the child.