About photos nursery children on Facebook?

[Stephthegreat]

My sons nursery has posted on Facebook today and this is a public page so anyone can see. The children are doing messy play and are all undressed even the 3 & 4 year olds just in knickers and vests.There are lots of photos and some very close up.AIBU to think is is a bit careless of them?

In my sons previous nursery they just used an apron and change of clothes for messy play.

Picked my son up today and there’s a few supply staff there due to sickness with staff.Theres a man there I’d never met and he said he had been brought in for @ few days had safety check etc which I know is fine.

Have you taken screenshots? Screenshot the difference between what you can see and what your husband can see. Personally I'd also quickly set up a throwaway FB account and screenshot what a random FB'er with no nursery connection can see.

Then contact your local authority and find out who the LADO is for your area and have a chat. Also report to OFSTED.

Don't focus on the man firstly - focus on the fact that the children were stripped to their underwear for messy play and then photographed. Then mention the staff member - he may be entirely fine. I know that the husband and daughter of the woman who owns/runs the nursery my DD goes too are DBS checked for there as they stand-in last minute if something happens, usually just until a staff member can get in. It's not that uncommon imo as it's sometimes either that or closing.

The underwear and photographing is more likely to have been done by a regular member of staff. I say that because if Mary's husband is helping out for a random day and suggests all the kids take their clothes off people will be suspicious... If the kids have had photos taken and it's on FB and there's not a whole slew of parents posting "Erm, wtf?" then it's probably not the first time. So keep your focus on the clothing and the photos.

Most teachers don't have a problem with photos of children online.

They've usually had plenty of training in this area and realise how benign the kind of photos which some people get all worked up over are.

You're unreasonable for thinking this is inappropriate. You're especially unreasonable for complaining about this having given permission for photos to be taken and used.

I have no idea what the connection is between the photographs and there being a man working there. You know not all men are pedophiles, right?

^ best just ignore this.

Oh please. I suppose it's my fault that I have an ongoing issue with my son's school and FB photos then, because I gave consent for photos to be used on the school website, prospectus etc but NOT Facebook? I'm just overreacting, right?

The fact our form specifically asks for separate permissions for various uses and websites, including FB, and I decline FB every year and write in GIANT letters NO FACEBOOK PHOTOS EVER... Irrelevant, right?. Yet once again this week a photo of DS (and me! just the two of us) at a school event is up on FB. Because they can't be arsed to check or remember. I'm 100% certain the teachers have had a lot of training and experience in this area, so it must be me being picky and just finding things to get angry about for no reason?

I digress anyway. OP - giving permission to use photos is not the same as them being able to take any photo they like and distribute it. If the photos are inappropriate - and I feel pics of kids in their pants up close is pretty inappropriate and would put me off that nursery immediately - please complain and report them to FB as well for removal.

Why's that, Bastard?

Ah, bastardkitty said it so much better than I could

Yes, clever weren't they.

"giving permission to use photos is not the same as them being able to take any photo they like and distribute it."

ummm.

Try reading that back to yourself.

Genuine question - is there any more of the children on display than if they were wearing tshirts and shorts or swimwear? If not, it doesn't sound as if you're being particularly reasonable.

What I was trying to say is I can give them permission to take and use photos, but that doesn't make it legal or appropriate for them to, for example, take naked photos or photos of my child in a sexually suggestive pose.

I haven't given permission for ANY photo they may feel like taking, because the law and safeguarding rules prevent some photos from being allowed in the first place. I've merely given permission for appropriate photos - and I strongly feel that the photos described in the OP are not appropriate. So they can't wriggle out of it just by saying 'well you gave permission'.

Your "feelings" are very different to the law and the permission the OP gave.

You know that the children were clothed? Pants and vests.

You know that messy play is not sexually suggestive posing?

That’s the thing!i don’t have any problems with my son being photographed fully clothed but it’s unnecessary to put photos on of him in his undies on Facebook publicly and why take risks with so many weirdos already known to be trawling through Facebook looking for these photos.

I’m not just imagining these risks,they are well known!

The photos are a bit of a red herring in this one. It's in no way normal for a nursery to strip all the children to their underwear.

I do. I was giving an alternative example, hence saying 'for example'.

I'm a qualified teacher. This would not happen in any of the schools I have worked in. Other people who work in a nursery setting have stated it would not happen in their workplace either, as it is inappropriate. So a fair few trained, qualified people who share those 'feeling' here!

I'm a qualified teacher who can't spell, clearly

I know messy play isn’t sexual at all but I don’t understand the point in undressing the children when a simple apron or spare set of clothes (I always provide a bag of clothes and put on his peg) would suffice? The paint is water based so I don’t mind just running them through the washer.

The only connection between the photos and the man are that they happened on the same day and seemed unusual.Ive so far never seen photos like that on a public Facebook page of my child and normally I see the same nursery staff and not people I don’t know or who aren’t trained in an early years capacity.

The clothing and the man may be related in terms of the nursery being lax at safeguarding if he's not specifically DBS checked for the nursery. They might not be.

Either way, having the kids strip to their underwear at nursery is not normal. And it shouldn't be something that's normalised to the children either.

As a head it would happen here. The photos are publicly viewable for each class blog but not indexed by search engines.

One of the favourite blogs I saw last year was children in underwear on a slip and slide set up in the garden. We also had a mud pit in the summer which children played in in their pants.

We only got positive comments about 'children being children' etc.

"I’m not just imagining these risks, they are well known!"

Yes you are and no they're not. Facebook rarely registers on the radar of any "weirdo" looking for sexual images of children.

Undressing children is easier than bagging up wet and dirty clothes. It also means they can return to the same activity instead of being told to stop because they've run out of clean clothes.

Aprons are next to useless.

I’m finding it quite incredible that you think Facebook ‘rarely registers on the radar of any weirdo’. If that’s the case then why are we constantly seeing documentaries (BBC, ITV) about the dangers of Facebook and paedophiles? Why are schools even bothering to teach children about the risks of social media if it’s just all harmless?

Maybe we’re all imagining it and I’m just going mad!

Just googled this topic and there are so many articles from reputable sources advising not to put photos of your children online in their undies. It’s not just about sexual predators but about the respect and privacy for children as they are too young to give consent.

‘Aside from the embarrassment factor, there is the real danger that the photo could wind up in the wrong hands. Pictures of children may seem cute and innocent, but the sad truth is that there are really bad people out there who might see the photos and use them for unspeakable purposes. Don’t be an unwitting accomplice to your child’s exploitation.’

I’d also be pissed off with the fact that I was paying for professional childcare provided by trained early years staff but my child was being cared for by a random unqualified person who hasn’t the same training around chil development/safeguarding etc.

I run a youth group (10-18) and all parents are asked to sign a disclaimer to give their consent to photographs or video images. The disclaimer is split into separate tick boxes, for things like marketing, local press and "social media in the public domain". The National Body to this youth group is really hot on safeguarding issues and all volunteers are dbs checked etc. This nursery is most definitely acting unlawfully if permission hasn't been granted, especially given the age and type of image. Clearly staff haven't sufficient safeguarding training which is a massive issue.

As far as I remember there was a simple tick box on the form saying if it was ok to use my child’s image to track his learning for his learning files and that some images may be used on their Facebook page.I have said yes to this but assumed they would be appropriate images (clothed) and really had no issue with that. I never in a million years thought I’d have to write ‘yes but no photos of him in his undies or naked’. I’d have though that was a given!

If you have reported the post to FB, then it automatically gets hidden from your feed by FB.

There is a lot of information about this issue on the NSPCC’s website, just a snippet:

‘only use images of children in suitable clothing to reduce the risk of inappropriate use. Some activities, for example swimming and drama, present a much greater risk of potential misuse.’