To ask school to remove photos

[WillowCraft]

We decided not to put any photos of our children on social media until they are old to enough to consent to it themselves. We don't have them on our facebook pages and have asked family not to either. The reasons for this are privacy mainly, although there is also a safety aspect - though this is not the main concern.

My son started school last week and I requested no photos on social media or the school website. Now the school have posted several pictures of my son on Facebook - they are taken from behind or the side so don't show his face but it's still recognisably him as several people have commented to me. The photos are of a small number of children - 2 or 3 - not as part of a larger group.

I feel they shouldn't have done this and feel inclined to ask them to take the pictures down - however unfortunately this school is constantly putting stuff on Facebook - the whole of last year's reception class were on there most weeks, often with their work and their name showing. I am worried that if I say no pictures that my son will feel singled out and will never be picked for anything - he will never get a leading role in the school play for example, and will have to stand to the side every time they take photos - which is at least weekly.

I do think the amount they post on facebook is completely inappropriate, I would be happy with photos on a password protected page visible only to parents but not open to the public. I would be less happy but ok with occasional photos as part of a large group on SM. I really hate the idea that anyone who wants can track my child's progress through primary school!

Has anyone experienced similar and what did you do?

Thanks for all that information that really has not much to do with this thread....

It break it down to a simple form. Ofsted look at social media before inspection. They see emoji face on picture. This is apparently a serious breach of gdpr. Nice easy fail for them there. Why even bother going in.

This is really a big tangent no one needs. I only mentioned ofsted because people were saying why do schools post pictures on sm.

You have every right to be annoyed, OP. I would be.

Wakintoblueskies - it was the difference of 7 years, which included my children bring more able to consent to where their images appeared, plus us being much less at risk of repercussions by the disgruntled offenders that DH used to work with. I just never thought to amend the consent forms.

Seeing as you have no idea why op doesn't want her child on social media, that is a really unhelpful comment. Some children are kept untraceable for very good reasons

I know some girls who'd match that description. So no, he's not as unique as you think.

@HarrietJet , yes, of course, it’s why I wrote ‘for example’ and not an exhaustive list.

I much preferred tapestry as you can't even screenshot from that app, so it felt more secure than class dojo.

Please be aware, you can access tapestry on a web browser and screenshot it.

Fair enough! He's man shaped in his school shirt, that's what I meant by built like a shed, so you must know some girls with unusually impressive upper body muscles.
I have a slim brother with long hair that I can totally imagine being mistaken for a girl, but DC2 is the opposite of slight. I know for a fact if we are using the context of this thread he would be identifiable in his year group at the very least.

I didn't accuse you of anything😂
I questioned a few people's assumptions on here. I think we better leave that there as it is derailing the OPs question.

I just think the OP needs to explain her concerns to the school. They'll take her seriously and remove the pictures. It is her right to ask them to do that.

I work in tech and think this is appalling .

Contact their safeguarding lead to understand rationale in digital policy , sounds iffy

To be honest, it sounds more like your projecting your own views of putting the kids on SM than actually just dealing with your own child. I love looking at our school’s SM, they share photos of all year groups (all taken from the back) and you can see all the activities and fun the kids are having. Its nice to see what is going on across the whole school. If you dont want a photo from the back, just email and ask that he’s not in any photos at all, even where he is barely identifiable.

She doesn't have to explain anything. She didn't give consent. They broken GDPR law by publishing. The law is clear - you need to give positive consent for data to be published. It's clear.

This thread is just going round in circles...

This

Gdpr is only broken of the photo is identifying. She considers it to be but I assume the school do not. Hence the grey area.

I'm surprised by how casual they are about it. Back when I used to be a teacher I think posting a child from any angle when the parents hadn't given consent would have gotten me in a lot of trouble and been a safeguarding concern.

There are always children who have abusive family members, ongoing custody battles, adoptees with dangerous birth parents etc. It really is sometimes a safety thing.

And of course you'd hope that in most of those situations the teachers would know but what about if the family were in witness protection? They can hardly tell the teacher all about it.

What about if nothing major has happened (yet) but the parent doesn't trust a family member they've gone no contact with and would prefer to keep their child's school private. It might not be a big enough thing for them to think it needs mentioning to the school because they'd probably assume that not giving photo consent is enough.

Although the school would very much like to always be informed of safeguarding concerns the reality is they're not always. Is being able to publish pictures online really worth the risk, no matter how small?

People up thread were saying that's it's not an issue because the only people who would recognise the child are people who already know them. The people who know the child might be the threats! In fact it's more likely than it being a random stranger.

The only children who should be in shot of any photograph are children whose parents have signed that it's fine.

You first.

But it's a picture of the back of his head. How is anyone going to 'read his primary school work' from that? You are being very precious about a non event.

As someone who works in education, the need for photos is a complete pain. Takes time away from the activity/teaching/planning. I totally get the anonymity preference but again this means trawling through photos and sometimes blurring/covering faces.

Since we are expected to post photos (my school has twitter and Google classroom - I only post on Google classroom), if a parent has asked for the child not to be shown, I try to ensure their face is not visible in group shots or blur/cover so they would not be identified by randoms. This policy is considered acceptable by the school.

Might be worth seeing what your school policy is. Tbh, if you speak to the teacher and say you want no photos whatsoever, they'll oblige. Wouldn't be a problem for me. We do this for children in care and various other situations where it's vital nobody knows where the child attends school.

I would never exclude a child from activities based on this. If the child is old enough, we would have discussed no photos and if they're little, a distraction during photo time works well.

Are you sure it's your son and not another kid with similar back of head

It really isn’t. If consent has been removed that’s the end of it. It doesn’t say “consent removed for a good reason”. It’s just no consent for photos to be shared. With the reason rarely shared.

This is not true. On any level. Sorry kid you can’t take part because we can’t take photos. Nope.

You need to ask them to blot out his head with a giant yellow smilies which is what DD's old primary does.
It is a perfectly reasonable request.

My safeguarding is tip top thank you. I absolutely understand the reasons why parents decide not to have their children on social media. It doesn't bother me having to do it, but it's good for the children to be aware that sometimes there will be photos and they can't be in them. I'm not sure if something like tapestry can be used for girlguiding? If it could then that would be a good option I suppose. But as with all things girlguiding, it's on a voluntary basis where leaders put in hours of work unpaid on top of the weekly session. Hence many using a closed Facebook group to post photos (my unit didn't have a public page)

I actually don't post any kids on my social media or if I do, it's a back of head (even with permission from friends/ family) or a blurred face.