To not let my kids appear on school social media?

In your haste to leap down my throat you didn't bother reading:

In our case, we have managed to find activities that don't require by kid being filmed and then the footage being in the hands of people with no requirement to keep it private/safe. Stuff like swimming, dance class, music lessons etc

Made a right t*t of yourself there didn't you :)

So we had a 15 year old play in premier league team fairly recently. Should there be a ban on any photographs of that particular team? If course not.

we have to be proportionate about the repose to this and accept children will become young adults and as a society we share images of each other often in a sporting or other performance context.

there was a parent recently who filmed their daughter in their last under 16 football game and there was an outcry that this had been done. How horrifying for a parent who for the best of reasons has taken a nostalgic video to be pilloried like that.

I think we risk the omission of a lot of media that reflects childhood experience and that would be a very sad thing. We also have to face the fact children are part of society and that includes a digital society and we do have such things as child you tube performers etc. confidentially want that career in the spot lighr. So we denied them opportunities.

the bigger problem is children themselves with spa chat and Ti k too groups where there is a lot more danger of inappropriate image leakage.....

They should though, the safety advice to schools is not to post images of children online. It should be basic that they prioritise parents of the children in their school over an online presence. Newsletters and closed apps were already there before they started posting to SM.
I guarantee in 5 years time no school, particularly primary, will be posting children online and we will be questioning why some people were still so adamant to allow it even after we were more aware of the risks.

We have made it illegal for an under 16 to have their own SM profile so why should schools be allowed to post their face online?

Path above

Whilst fully understanding safeguarding concerns I do find this a party to a dystopian world where taking a photograph of a child is a social taboo. The royal family routinely produce photographs of Geroge and Charlotte and this shows maybe a necessity to have children sometimes on digital media Would we go to the extremes of banning children from ever appearing on television due to the footage maybe being copied?

You can't get rid of abhorrent paedophilia but is the blanket ban of child presence on the internet in a way giving in with children possibly being made more anxious with less secure relations with adults for fear of a very small minority of deviants?

Are our responses proportional to threat?

We switched our permission from no to yes because it got to the point where DD was being excluded from a lot of school activities. Asked to sit on the side during whole lessons as they'd be photographing it for some reason or other. She would also miss out on awards because they wanted people to go into the newsletter. But this isn't for public social media just the content shared on the parenting news space in the school app.

It really isn't. I'm a teacher and most schools already use apps such as dojo that would allow them to share images with just parents rather than online.

I'm a teacher in charge of social media and online safety.
As others have said people have made videos of children using faces they've found off school's socials.
My school (and many others) are moving towards not posting full faces and using profiles or over shoulder shots or faces partially blocked by something.
As a parent I've given permission for my child to be on socials because her school have already taken this step. Had they not, I wouldn't allow it.

That's just creating a whole other layer of work for the school, at a time when budget and resources are stretched to the limit. If people want to opt out, fine. But it shouldn't be on the schools to accommodate and create another forum for sharing pictures just because it's nice for parents- they have more than enough to do.

I’m certainly not worried about some ‘weirdo’ looking at a random school pics.
But I wouldn’t worry about missing out - I’ve only ever noticed my kids in one video and a few pics from the school and it’s not like you keep them.

I didn't even think of that. I would be more concerned about using the image for AI abuse photos

He wouldn't care and wouldn't see the danger. I consented because yes, someone might be able to deepfake CSAM, but it's unlikely they'd bother with the photos that have been uploaded.

I don’t either. I started off because I felt that it was important for kids to have privacy and to live their life without loads of people looking at them. And now it’s because of the obvious CSA/AI risks

yadbu

I'm really sorry to hear they don't have a private way of sharing photos. It's a real shame that the only way parents will see any images of their child/ren, is if they allow them to be shared to a public instagram account.

I understand the need for advertising and promoting the school, but public social media accounts shouldn't be the only way photos are shared.

Presumably he's older though and has a better understanding of the situation so he can offer his opinions on whether he wants his photograph to be used or not?

DS2, my only DC still at school, often has his photo on his school social media, things like food tech or science.

This is something we’re navigating as we prepare for P1 in September. The pre-school our DS attended only posted pictures to a parent app and on noticeboards in school.

The primary does post pictures to a website and Facebook. We’ve taken the decision to say our sons picture may be taken and featured on physical noticeboards in school and parent only communication, but not on the website, Facebook, local media etc. The biggest driver for us is that the school was asking for permission for not just a picture, which is inevitably connectable to the school, but also his name, which for me opens up the children to being approached by strangers who know where to find them and their name.

the Principal was very accommodating.

I havent consented for my sons school for the fact i dont want his dad to find out hes going there.

Agree - Kids have appeared in local newspapers for years, sports events, fetes etc not sure why this is any different

I post my kids on social media. My accounts are private

The irony is the op would absolutely love to see her child in a photo at school but the only current option is that it's also shared online publicly.

Surely you can agree that in this situation it would actually be great if photos were not shared online and instead with parents personally like they used to be when your child was younger.

A win win don't you think?

I agree, I understand people who want privacy, that is valid. I just don’t get the idea of not doing it due to pedos getting the photo off the school social media etc. A pedo can take their own photos which would usually be “better”than trying to manipulate a photo of 7 dc huddled around a computer screen all looking in different directions!

For me, it’s more about privacy overall
This not something I share, but that's a much more valid reason in my view than the fear of school pictures falling into the hands of paedophiles and harm being done as a result.