Child being used in huge ad without consent

[Ferniefernfernfern]

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.

The copyright is held by the photographer unless contact says otherwise - eg a photographer working on behalf of a company may assign the copyright to the company.

News is a slightly different situation because there are ‘fair use’ exceptions to copyright where, depending on the circumstances, you can use something without the copyright holder’s permission.

Stealth boast.
OP starts by making it sound like a GDPR issue (which would be a valid complaint) but it turns out her kids are super special and anyone who looks at them needs to pay. So it’s money that’s the issue after all, not GDPR.

Get them sued. Cheeky bastards.

OP is totally within her rights to ask for compensation - I can’t believe the company running the ad thought it was okay to use the image. It’s a considerable breach of conduct.

If anything OP is saving them having to reshoot and replace the image which would cost a lot of time, money and resources. I say go for it OP, but £100 feels too lowball x

And stand by while the club, that her earth-shatteringly stunning child enjoys, closes down. Just for some cash. Strange priorities.

So you don't actually mind him on there, you just want paying for it? I got a bit confused as I thought you were against it (full stop).

What does your son think about it? Or do you just have pound signs in your eyes now?

If pictures are being sold to participants then that usually comes under retail.

There is a huge difference between using the pictures for press and on a football club’s social media where those pictures are not intended for commercial use and are not necessarily being used as an advert.

Having a picture enlarged, however, to promote a club or venue is for commercial use aa the pictures are being used for advertising purposes. And yes the op is entitled ask for payment. If someone has been using those pictures for the sole purpose of advertising, then the op should have been asked to sign a release on behalf of her child.

It seems that regardless of what the pictures are being used for, the op did not give consent at all for any pictures of her child to be used anywhere for anything. Whether that be on social media or for advertising material.

If you ask for money you have to be clear in what you are selling and what the image will be used in and who is allowed to own the image and how long they can use that image for

Selling without a proper contract could mean the company then own the rights to that image and it can be sold on to other companies and used for years to come.

I totally appreciate the position, we're similarly no consent to any images.However, asking for payment sends a different message.

I suspect you don't want to ask the club to remove them as you're thinking that the horse has bolted and you want to look reasonable, which you may not if you insist on removal.

I'd ask what "reasonable" looks like to a club that has no respect for you or your child's privacy to start with or is so poorly managed that they've made a mistake like this?

You've made it very clear that images of your children are not to be used and this isn't about conciliation on your part. The club is in the wrong, mistake or otherwise.

I'd ask that they're removed within 24h.

This is advice for charities (for-profit use without consent is against the law, I checked the situation with not-for-profits) "If the people in the photo are identifiable, it is advisable to ask them to sign a simple consent form. This will help to protect the charity from a data protection claim or a claim that it has breached the subjects' privacy rights. If the subjects are children, you may need to ask their parents or guardians to sign."

I agree the issue is that the OP dies not dollar to have signed a release, unless she did without realising when signing up for the event.

However, you are wrong about the use of images for advertising with a banner being different to the club advertising on SM. Both fall under the same commercial use waiver and no, the subject is not entitled to get paid if the image was taken during a live sporting event where they participated (and the commercial release was signed along with the participation registration).
Images can only be sold to participants by photographers (normally just the one per event) who hold the commercial accreditation. Say an athlete contacts a phoyojournalist asking to purchase one of their photos they have seen online or in the press, the said editotial accreditation holder is not allowed to respond positively to the request.

You might be surprised that if you attend say the British championships of anything, the athletes on the banners don't get paid or asked. The images come from the bank of pictures of the commercially accredited photographer the previous year.
The same principle applies to small local events, where often a commercially accredited photographer will be mandated by the organising club etc.

However, we agree on that being possible if and only if participants have signed releases.

We had given permission for school to use photos on their Website, which had been fantastic for our Dc to see his achievements acknowledged.

Anything else we would be delighted to see picture shown if we had given consent for and probably would.

Problem here is of course you denied it ant therefore they shouldn't have done it.

A reminder and take down photo for a private club but no way would demand money. Leave it up to them if they want to give compensation or free lessons as an apology. This isn't the USA and sue everyone.

@Ferniefernfernfern sorry there are so many posts I haven’t read all replies just your posts.
Did you give consent (sign a release form) for his photo to be taken and used by the club?
If you did you can withdraw your consent by law and they can’t use it any longer.

So are you saying that a picture posted on social media of how a game went on Sunday being posted on social media is for commercial use?? And are you saying a picture of a local football team being published in the local gazette because they won a game is the same as an advertising campaign and that those pictures are being used for commercial use? Nope it’s not, anymore than a school taking pictures of what their classes have been doing and posting on social media is not being used for advertising purposes. The difference is, nobody is using those pictures to advertise their club/ school or anything else in those pictures.

I’m not wrong I used to work as a full time model. I know the difference between commercial and non commercial use. I have signed many releases for the commercial advertising use of my pictures so I do know what I’m talking about. There’s a huge difference between using pictures for non advertising reasons and posting them on social media to using the pictures to advertise something. And yes, where the pictures of someone are being used to advertise a venue, brand, place etc then the person in those pictures is entitled to ask for payment as it is for commercial use. Just posting a few pictures of how Sunday afternoons game went on social media is not commercial use neither is it for advertising purposes. Nobody in those pictures will have been taking part in an advertising campaign.

Yes images can only be sold to people by the photographer. A company buying pictures for advertising purposes means that they the pictures are for commercial use. A participant of sport buying the pictures for their own use to hang up on their wall in their living room is classed as retail and therefore are for non commercial and non profit use. The photographer in all situations tends to own the copyright unless the copyright is then signed over to someone else.

You might be surprised that if you attend say the British championships of anything, the athletes on the banners don't get paid or asked. The images come from the bank of pictures of the commercially accredited photographer the previous year

this. For the sport I go to, at the British championships the national governing body pays a photographer. The photos are used throughout the year for advertising, the sport, other events, media releases etc.

the athletes do not get paid. The photographer cannot use the photos, sell them, or even give them away without permission from the NGB. The athletes have absolutely no control. If you are a favoured athlete though chances are you will be given copies- it’s an in joke here that you can spot who will be selected/funded/supported based on whether they have those photos, not on their results!

Lots of people on here possibly confusing the OP about what a release form means in terms of children’s images in this context vs more professional contexts like modelling or mainstream media.

So. I used to work in a press office for a council. If we sent a photographer to a school for example, the kids would need a release form for that context to be pictured. Which would differ from the schools general image consent form.

We’d ‘keep’ and use the pictures and all forms but parent can withdraw permission at any time to use it and that’s included on the form - including how to get in touch if they wanted to. All images were archived after a year to also further safeguard.

I recently signed one for my own daughter’s football club. Ticked yes for use on clubs private page, no to promotional material, websites etc.
if this club have taken and used his image without (or in breech of) any consent from you then you can challenge them by law if they don’t remove it immediately.

when I say ‘by law’ it doesn’t mean you have to take them to court it just means you call or email and say I didn’t consent or I withdraw my consent. If they push back or don’t take the banner down they’re on breech of law and then you could take it further. Good luck.

Nobody is confusing release forms.

You can sign a consent form stating whether or not a football club can post pictures of the game on their social media etc where your child might be included in those pictures. However at this point you are just consenting to say you are either happy/ not happy for pictures of your child to be posted on social media/ in the local gazette or wherever else for non advertising purposes.

A separate release form however should always be obtained when someone then intends to use those pictures for advertising purposes. There are a lot of legal implications to using pictures for advertising purposes that don’t come under the same umbrella as what Ive mentioned in my first paragraph.

Either way, no consent has been given by the op for her child’s images to be used anywhere for anything.

Sorry but you’re wrong. If a photographer is commissioned by a football club the club own those images (and if it’s children also hold the consent forms)
Press photographers if attending an event with children will and should (if they’re professional) clarify ‘have all these kids got consent?’
as if they don’t then they could end up with useless pictures or footage as they can’t use it as one child didn’t have consent forms signed.

Come back when you know the difference between an advertising campaign and event photography

I was referring to further up thread. Where there was a chance of confusion.

Eee I just laughed my head off there.
Come back when you’ve worked for 25 years with kids and their consent in this context 😂

I’m not confused? There does however seem to be some confusion on this thread over event photography and the pictures photographed at events being confused with pictures being used to advertise a venue/ club/ business

Come back when you spent 25 years as a model and signed many release forms giving permission for your pictures to be used for advertising purposes…. Not to be confused with pictures taken at events 😂

Dear Club,

How dare you use my child’s image without our permission? We’ve even gone as far to previously let it be known that we do not consent to my children’s images to ever be used!

BUT if you’re willing to throw a cheeky £100 at us or let us have a freebie towards camp then of course ignore my (faux) outrage in the paragraph above!

Regards,
‘Outraged’ Mumsie x