Child being used in huge ad without consent

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Background: My child (early primary school age) plays a sport at the local club and recently, there was a photographer taking pictures of his tournament. The pictures inevitably cropped up on Facebook and Instagram. Usually we don't allow our children to appear on social media but decided to let it go, as the tournament was free and we didn't want to make a fuss.

However, one of the pictures of him has now been made into a 6 foot tall banner advertising the club. I had previously emailed them (about 3 months ago) letting them know my children's images cannot be used for commercial purposes. My kids are in the minority where we live, so I think their look makes them particularly marketable. I've had to ask for their pictures to be taken down by virtually every single school and activity they've ever participated in.

I've just followed up on my previous email suggesting that they remunerate my son in the form of covering his half-term camp costs (around £100).

AIBU? My background is in advertising/TV and I know how easy it is for businesses to exploit children's images without proper payment or consent, but maybe I'm overthinking it.

That’s not quite true. She gave consent to begin with. Models can’t say yes then withdraw and then adverts have to come down. It doesn’t work like that

At first I voted you were not BU, but have now changed it, as initially I thought you just didn't want your child's picture out there, but now it's clear that the only objection you have is that he hasn't been paid. I'm a bit disgusted with that to be honest OP.

This ^^

This

Only £100? If you work in ad/tv then you know how much is spent on advertising. If they want to use your sons image to promote their club then they need to come up with a better compensation package than £100.

Ah didn't see the part where permission was given. I never give permission as I object to children being used to advertise anything, school, clubs etc.

I would take it very seriously if I found a data breach and DS had been photographed. Parents of adopted or fostered children in particular need their child to remain off limits for photos/film footage for very, very good reason.

What does your child think about it?

Complain and ask to be compensated, especially given the long history of minorities not being credited for their contributions.

My colleague is a minority in our sector. They are largely ignored except when visitors are shown around. It's so insulting given that all the senior team are not from minorities and yet they are trying to show how inclusive they are, but not at the highest echelons.

I disagree with the PP saying that you have undermined your legal/moral case.

You may have slightly undermined your rhetorical case (i.e., in here), because it's true that there are two reasons to object (1, I don't want my kid's picture up there; 2, If they use it I want to be paid). But this is the Internet and that doesn't matter (although if this does look like going to court, you could maybe ask MNHQ to delete the thread — belt and braces and all that).

But the legal position is clear: They are using his image without having obtained consent, which is wrong whether or not you would have granted consent in principle once a fee had been agreed. That is, your price can be £100 or £500 or £2,500 or infinity (i.e., no way can you use that picture). You still hold all the cards legally.

However, I can pretty much guarantee that the club will have a clause saying that they can terminate memberships at any time and without giving a reason, and if push comes to shove they might well exercise that. So if you do decide to take legal action, make sure you ask for a decent amount, because you may be needing some of it to pay for petrol to drive him to a new club a bit further away.

OK, so I have 2 adopted children and there was a big no no around having their photos circulated in case they were tracked down by their birth parents. We went to Center Parcs shortly after the adoption and a travel show was filming there and we had to find out their filming itinerary so we wouldn't be in the shots.

But this isn’t her agreeing. She disagrees but as it has happened wants compensation.

I think you are way off with wanting only £100

Dd and DS did child modelling adverts etc (this was 15 years ago so don’t know what the standard pay is now but DS had a photo shoot for a French fashion magazine and we were talking 5x that amount

Something similar that dd did (one off photo) was nearer £200 and those amounts were after the 20% agency fees

We too had to tick the box on school and after school club photos as their image could only be used in advertising if it went through their agent.

Friend had to tick the box for no photos as they had fled a domestic violence situation

I would actually get really really angry because if you had been fleeing a DV situation it could lead to someone getting killed.

Utterley stupid people who thought they could get away with this

I presume the photographer got paid

You are absolutely right to ask for the photos to be taken down. If a parent has not given consent, they are completely in the wrong.

However, asking for payment is inappropriate on many levels. It undermines normal reasons for withholding photo consent. Even if you pay for membership, that is likely just to cover their running costs. Most sports teams and clubs are community not-for-profit organisations and asking them to pay you is despicable.

This…

Because that is a totally different term of use.
"You can pay my child to use their picture" is a valid view point.
However what you chose is "you can't use my child's picture"
You never suggested anything about not wanting them to gain financially from your child's pic.

For privacy reasons it’s completely unreasonable for them to use the image (unless this is part of the club joining conditions and you have waived this right in the small print). However, it seems you are only interested in the commercial aspects for a small club which is completely unreasonable of you and comes across as grabby.

For safeguarding have you indicated If child’s images can be used? If not allowed they should never have kept and / or used the images.

If you have allowed I think it would be correct they remunerated you, however I personally had this. We paid a photographer at a club to take our picture. Went back a year later and our image was his in his 6ft advert banner, we asked for a discount or something as we had never agreed but got short sharp shrift along the lines of “we should be lucky our faces are being used”.. All before safeguarding!

Me too. I read that post and thought: “spoken like a true ad(wo)man”. Yeuch,

If it’s a local sports club - run by committee and volunteers yabu.

if it’s a commercial business then that’s a different matter.

You lost it soon as you asked for money

tbh a lot of clubs struggle for staff and finances
things like this just make it difficult and the just fold because the people running it just cba with things like this

Personally I wouldn’t be bothered and if it was to promote activities for kids I’d see it as a positive there’s less and less for kids as it is

Just let it roll, its a community group and you signed away your rights?

So, do you want to keep your consent withdrawn and not have your DS everywhere or do you want to change that and give consent to have money for the image used? I agree with PP and think it's one or the other really.
The club were extremely wrong about using your DS for advertising purposes without consent. There's no doubt about that. I would be livid in that situation and probably withdraw DC from club and file a lawsuit. I'm not you and thankfully not in this position.
I do think you should choose OP. Do you want his image used and get paid for it or the image to be taken down?