AIBU to be very annoyed that I have just found a newspaper photo of my DC's on the internet.

[nolembit]

I have just been looking at our local paper online and found a picture of the entire school including my DC's with the local MP.

I fill in a photographic permission slip every year which states that my DC's picture cannot be used on the web.

I am fuming and don't know whether to speak to the school or the newspaper. I am also annoyed that this put's me in a very difficult position wrt other parents/school as they will not have the opportunity to take another picture without my DC's. I am so mad in fact I am livid!!!!!!!

[nolembit]

glassescase then you are aware that it breaches the Data Protection Act when a photograph is taken by a local newspaper without the parent's consent where the child is in school uniform (linked to personal data) and therefore identifiable.

[AbigailS]

Before I start; not excusing what the school has done.
Text idea is good in theory, but that is assuming the school has bought into the service, the parents have also signed up to it and the parents have their mobile phones on / charged.
We investigated this option for our school and decided a) too much money for what use we'd get from it, b) tried to contact parents on mobiles too often and found disconnected, changed numbers, "oh I gave that phone to my older child", "oh the battery had run flat days ago and I hadn't noticed (I've done that frequently) hadn't charged it", etc.
I think whatever system the school has in place needs reviewing. We get consent at the beginning of each school year, if it's denied we make a list of those children and blutac it inside my cupboard door. We've had groupd of trainee teachers in to teach PE lessons and they needed to photograph their sessions as part of their evidence, so we just gave the children without consent a PE band to wear and told the trainees not to get those children in shot and if they did by accident they must be deleted immediately.
I think mistakes are made in rushed situations when a system is not firmly in place, and this should get the school to review their systems.
Do speak to the school and they can phone the paper to have the photo rmoved from the website. We've done that when a parent had given permission, but objected to her child being photogrpahed with a particular vistor.

[Wecanfixit]

Poor you , yep the school has made a monumental up. I would contact them first and tell them in no uncertain terms you want this STOPPEDand Now!,
good luck .

[NearlyHeadlessnickelbabe]

the photo doesn't even need to be pulled- your DS can be removed from the photo (using photoshop) and the amended version put on the web.
I have done this successfully before (the photos were taken and then the permission sought - I just rubbed the child out of the photo)

[Pin0t]

Reallllllllllly hope glassescase is nowhere near my kids school.

[twinmummy24]

YANBU i totally understand the need to protect you DC's from those who would seek to track them down, my lo's are adopted and were specifically placed out of area as it was felt birth parents may try to contact them or adoptive family in the future and could pose a risk to the girls, social services specifically told us not to allow the girls in any photo's that would be published in the media especially if they were wearing a school uniform as this could lead to birth family tracking them down.

glassescase scares the hell out of me, hope to hell they are no where near me as i honestly would not feel safe with someone who holds this attitude caring for my children.

[27tilly]

I really hope you don't work at my DC school

[thefirstMrsDeVere]

glasses my DS's birth mother is not very bright and is lazy. However she is very vindictive and very computer literate.

She knows where we live but she knows if she turned up at our door something unpleasant would happen.

She would be able to scan the online version of our local paper and identify DS from a school photo which would not only show his school uniform but would name the school as well.

She may well then use that information to cause a great deal of trouble and distress. If she happened to have a boyfriend with a car she may very well make her way to the school and start screaming though the fence at my son that he has been stolen and she is his REAL MUMMY. It would take a while for the police to remove her and the damage would be done by then. She may also copy the photo and put it on one of her networking pages which contain sexual photos of her and she would list my DS's full name.

I am sure that the parents of his school friends wouldnt want their kids on those soft (ish) porn sites anymore than I would.

Birth parents have turned up at schools before that is why adoptive parents do not send photos of their children in school uniform.

[thisisyesterday]

it's nothing to do with the school though

you have signed a form saying that the SCHOOL cannot post pictures of your child on the web

the photographer owns the rights to the pictures, and can publish them if they wish.
if you don't want this to happen then you need to ask that your child is never, ever photographed

[thisisyesterday]

OP, if you are this concerned about a newspaper photo of your children among loads of others, unnamed with no connection to your husband.... do you also cover your children up in public?

what if one of those paedphiles saw your kids out with your husband? or do you not let them out with him? or on their own in fact seeing as they resemble him?

it's far, far more likely that IF someone wanted to harm them they would be able to track your husband down and find out where he lived and then stalk your children and do it.

sorry, that sounds awful, but I honestly think that having an un-named picture in the newspaper is less risky than your husband being out in public with your children where ANYONE could see them

[thefirstMrsDeVere]

Course its the school's responsibility. Its up to them to find out what is going to happen to photos they allow to be taken of the children.

[Sirzy]

It is everything to do with the school. From what OP has said they knew that she didn't want photos published but they allowed it to happen - who else is to blame for it really?

The reasons behind her making the decision really don't matter. It is her wishes and therefore the school should respect them.

[ilovesprouts]

.

[Kewcumber]

thisisyesterday - it is her DH's responisbility to keep the children safe when they are with himand the schools when they are there. It is not for the school to decide their rationale for no photos publically is silly.

Its all very well you deciding its not much of a risk. But its not your child you're taking the risk with, is it?

[HappyMummyOfOne]

I'd find out the facts before being livid with them. People make mistakes, perhaps somebody forgot you dont let your children be photographed or they may not have even thought the newspaper put them on the website. The risk would be tiny if no name, they could easily be seen out in public with your husband or he could be spotted going to the school etc.

However unless you withdraw your child from every class photo, sports day or play then its likely there are already photos of them outside school. People often put them on FB etc.

If you are livid about pictures getting into the public domain then you need to ensure your children speak up when a camera is around to remind people that they are not allowed to have their picture taken and you need to ask the school not to include them in events.

[glassescase]

Pin0t- reallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly hope so too! However, I am not alone in my opinion. I do think that a small, un-named photo presents little risk. It's true they could be seen out with the OP's DH quite easily.

[TheOriginalFAB]

I had agreed to ds1 being photographed but not dd or ds2. DS1 subsequently was chosen to be in the paper and later dd wasn't. The head rather pointedly said "FabGirl couldn't be in the paper as you hadn't given permission." I felt awful but we had our reasons and the head wouldn't know them and isn't interested as doesn't like me

[Kewcumber]

I understand you think that glasses. But you have no right to ignore paretns wishes in this case however precious you think they are being.

Perhaps they have a policy of not going out with their father in their uniform? Thast for him to sort out (as I said earlier) its not for the school to be applying some kind of reasonableness test and making their own decisions about what is and isn't being precious.

And the argument about there possibly being photos of them on teh intenet posted by other people is irrelevant. It doesn't give the school carte blanche to ignore the parents just because someone else might have been an arse and posted photos of someone elses child on an open forum.

I have a friend with a verging on pathological fear of photos of her DS getting onto the internet. Partly with good cause and partly probably her being a bit precious. But she's being a bit precious because the outsome could be horrendous and taking even a tiny risk of that is not something she is prepared to do.

Easy to be sneery and blase about it when it isn't a situation you've been in yourself.

[thefirstMrsDeVere]

'easy to be sneery'

sort of feels like a MNs motto sometimes.

[whackamole]

nolembit YANBU

glassescase are you being deliberately obtuse? Apart from anything else, if the school has an opt-out clause then surely they should be following their own policy?

[GnomeDePlume]

OP YANBU

My DCs attended a primary school where there were a number of child protection issues which meant that certain children could not be photographed. I went in a couple of times to to take photographs. The children who couldnt be photographed were very sensitively removed from shot. In fact sometimes it was so sensitively done I didnt see it actually happen!

Some schools take this seriously and deal with it well.

[NotaDisneyMum]

I wouldn't want you anywhere near my kids either glasses - do you consider yourself more knowledgable the parents who tell the school about allergies or other risky medical conditions? I assume that you consider them to be precious PITA too?

My DDs school is excellent at managing this - parental photos are restricted at performances, and at Sports Day parents were specifically reminded to avoid taking photos with other children in, and that the Internet is no place to put photos of other peoples children, so don't !

OP - YANBU and I would be apoplectic if this happened to me/DD

[MynameisnotEarl]

My DD is a teacher and often photographs the children working on projects, on school trips etc. But she is very aware that some in her class must never be photographed or can only appear from the back in pictures. It is vitally important that this rule is adhered to and all staff are made aware of it.

Tbh, I don't think it's easy at all to have it both ways - photographed but not shown iyswim. Either allow them to be photographed or veto it.

[tjacksonpfc]

I can't beleive what I am reading on here being written by glassescase onsidering she works in a school.

Op you are so not being unreasonable I take pictures for a school by me for their use and the school website. I have a list of a couple of children who are unable to be in the photos. What I do is do all my photo editing on the school premises, The memory card that I use never leaves the school unless we are on a school trip in which case it is in my camera and never out of my hand or sight so no one could access it.

There are reasons why the parents of the children have opted out of their dcs being photographed. Who the hell has the right to go against what they say. What would happen glassescase if one of the pita precious parents as you called them had a photo of their dcs published against their wishes and, God forbid something happened to their dc!!!!!.

Out of interest glassescase are you in a school that has recently failed an ofsted inspection because listening to you, Your school has got no concern for teh safeguarding and wwlfare of the children that are meant to be in its care.

[glassescase]

Now that is a rather general statement, tjacksonpfc!
If you read carefully, you will find that at no time did I say that my school, or any other should ignore the wishes of the parent. My comments were that I feel the risk posed by a small, un-named photo are small, and that if someone wished to find a child there are other methods which could be used.
There are parents who ask that their children are not photographed who are just being precious.
In a large school, these demands are unwieldy and difficult to implement. Photographs are taken all the time, for all sorts of reasons, and often by the children themselves- whatever rules the school has- and many of these end up on the internet. It would be interesting to know whether anything untoward has ever happened; though I would hesitate to ask the question as it will be misinterpeted. I am not thinking here of paedophile behaviour.
And you will be pleased to hear that all inspections passed with flying colours.