To think a school shouldn't have a public Facebook page?

[HopelesslyHopeful87]

A school local to me has a Facebook page on which it posts updates of what their pupils have been doing. The page is completely public.

My children don't go there and I've never previously 'liked' the page but it comes up in my news feed as another parent has liked it.

Aibu to think that they should have some privacy settings? It doesn't affect me or my kids but if I was a parent of a child at that school I think I'd be annoyed. Just wanted to get other people's opinions on this one?

They will have permission of children featured. I would give permission for my dc, I don’t have a problem with it.

Can you explain what you think the issues with this are?

Ours does. Most people have given permission. The reason given for it being public is that it exists to raise the school's profile in the community, not just for parents' info.

If there was a specific concern or a parent felt uncomfortable with it, they could with old permission.

They should only be posting photos of children they have appropriate photo consent for, and not giving pupils full names

It doesn’t even affect you if you had kids at that school you could refuse consent for photos if you chose, so you still wouldn’t be affected

I can't see the issue. I see it even less if your own children are not in it!
As long as they post pics of children who have specifically asked not to be seen, it's a good idea.

Most schools post photos on their websites too.

Ours has one. We all got a form to sign to say of we were ok with out child's picture and first name to appear on the page. It doesn't bother me. The newsletter is uoadrd to a public webpage and that has first names and pictures in as well. People can watch the children playing if they walk past the school. Just because it's Facebook doesn't mean it's bad.

Your children don't even go to this school so why are you complaining about it?

Get a life.

Ours also has a Twitter feed. Sometimes they post lovely pictures of events that my daughters have been involved in. As I've given permission for their images to be used, it's fine by me.

my DD's school has gone into social media overdrive in past 6 months - we have FB, main school twitter, departmental twitter feeds, some year group twitter feeds, cross school activity (charity/careers) on twitter and an Instagram account (just one I think!)

What is the difference between doing this on FB and putting photos of school activities in the local newspaper - which has been done for years? As long as they are not posting pictures of children who haven't consented to photos then it's fine. I get photos of school activities of 3 local schools in my newsfeed. It's interesting to see what different local schools are doing.

I don't follow the school pages - before I get accused of being a stalker- they just come up because I am friends with people who do follow those pages as they have children at those schools.