AIBU to be windy about new school Flickr / Instagram

[whycantwegoonasthree]

So DDs school has a new website - with links through to Instagram and Flickr - entirely open and visible to the whole world. Chock full of images of the children, location tagged, the works.

This seems like a terrible idea to me. I'm not OTT about images of my children on social medial - but only visible to friends and family.

And FFS - we're instructed not to post photos taken during concerts etc on social media - because of 'privacy' - but it's ok for the school to post them for the world to see?

Are schools doing this now? Seems decidedly Not OK to me...

Presumably when the school shares photos it shares photos only of those children whose parents have previously indicated their consent.

Any children to whom specific safeguarding concerns apply will be discreetly out of shot.

If you don't want your child's photo to appear on Flickr or Instagram, ask to withdraw your consent.

Parents at concerts etc haven't been given other parents' consent to share images of their children and aren't privy to the reasons behind privacy concerns. That's why it's actually completely different.

The previous poster explained it perfectly. It's about knowing who's given permission.

I get that. And I gave consent for images to be used in prospectuses etc. But this is entirely different, and far more public use, surely?

It just seems like an irresponsible and unnecessary public use of images of children, to me.

Are there any names on the photos? That would be the tipping point for me.

We've already had indecent exposure incidents outside the school, and issues with children being approached by strangers.

I can't see why this is either wise or necessary.

Rules in our LEA are name or photos can be posted online not both.

If you don’t want your child on the s school social media, website etc then just withdraw consent.

Why is it irresponsible?

What makes you think the incidents outside of school and the images are linked or that the images could cause similar in the future.

You're yet to back up any kind of claim or issue you have.

Windy?

What on earth is going to happen to a child simply because an entirely normal photo of them was posted on a school instagram page?

I understand concerns about children whose parents aren't allowed to know where they are - which explains why parents can't film concerts - but I cannot see how photos of children where the parents have given consent could be harmful in any way.

Dear OP, I refused permission for photos of my DD to be used by the school because the wording of the consent form essentially gave the school carte blanch to do what they wished with them. They approach me occasionally with a specific request which I consider but I would always say no to internet/ social media as it is impossible to control what happens after it has been posted.

If your not happy then remove your consent for your children to be included, send in a letter to the School making it clear.

Personally I don’t have an issue with it when parents have given permission for the images to be used for publicity reasons. Many parents quite like seeing what the children are up to

The school I worked at had an open Twitter page. We only posted photos of children whose parents were happy for the photos to be online.

I have refused permission to the school to put photos of my children onine. It is a very small village school and it wouldn't be hard for some freak to find them if they were to see them and "take a shine"🤢 to one of them.

My daughters school has instagram. It’s a private account and you have to request to follow it to be able to see the pictures. I don’t see a problem with it personally.

My sons school had a Twitter account. They specifically asked for permission. Some parents declined and their children were obscured. I found it a great resource to understand what my child had being doing at school but also as a way of preparing him for school. He was going to a very large primary school and none of his friends from nursery were going with him. I showed him pictures of his teacher and the classroom and I think it really prepared him. They never used names - do they at your school. Also think you just opt out if you are not interested.