Primary school public Instagram account

[Hellogoodbyehowdoyoudo]

I've just come across my son's primary school Instagram account.

It's public. Not private. They share photos of the kids on social media.

Am I the only one who finds that a bit inappropriate?

I signed the consent form to allow his photo to be posted on school platforms, but I thought it was just Class dojo. Which means no one else can see them, only verified school parents.

Maybe I'm being silly. We live in a world of social media. It's the norm.

I think sadly there is far far more enticing content on the internet to child sex offenders then some kids learning maths.

Just tell the school. Job done. Other parents will have different thresholds.

Problem with various consents, is that you might say yes to bring in the newsletter but the newsletter Coukd then be posted on the website or Facebook etc. Most schools have social media for marketing and letting local community know what is happening in the school

You would be surprised where these sickos look. I know someone who works in this area and I would never put photos of my child anywhere on the internet after the things she has told me.

I would have concerns. Why would a primary school need an Instagram account? So odd.

This it’s a very simple fix.

Not necessarily true. Mine details specifically different categories. Right down to yes or no for a noticeboard in a public area for school and one in a private area.

I used to manage this in a primary school. It was a form each new joiner’s parent completed agreeing to where the image would be used (newspaper, SM, internal display etc.) and the information added to their school record. If a teacher wanted to publish a photo on FB they would ask for a list of the children who did not have consent. Took less than a minute to run it off.

Interestingly, the changes of consent were from parents calling in upset that their child’s photo wasn’t on the post as they had previously refused.

Ours is also public, I’m sure we signed a consent form right at the beginning. We have concerts, lots of activities etc and all parents film. Never has this been any issue. The school play is always filmed by parents too, it’s also live streamed on the YT page. I don’t know if this is a MN thing where people are so paranoid.

Unfortunately this isn’t always the case. I don’t consent to pics due to an ongoing safeguarding issue but I still had to tell the school to remove pics of my LO from Facebook twice within one term!

I think primary schools having social media is normal these days. However, I find it strange that you don’t have multiple choices for consent to accommodate pictures for the class dojo and pictures for public social media.

I agree with you OP I think it’s totally unnecessary and of no benefit to the children themselves while posing untold risks to them. With AI, data harvesting and an unknown future for technology I don’t think it’s worth taking the risk. I don’t put any pictures of my children online for that reason. There was an article on BBC news recently about some of the risks.

I’m sure people have seen those photoshop posts on Facebook where people ask for photo edits and get back videos of the person in the photo generated using AI. Now imagine that is a photo of your child and it’s some weirdo who gets hold of it.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8904njvy03o.amp

It does indirectly benefit the kids, because it's a recruitment tool and if they have a full roll, the school has more money...

That seems a poor benefit to me when weighed against the risks. Schools should be better funded without having to expose children to potential lifelong risks.

Agreed. Schools are busy enough without having to consult a large spreadsheet to see who has what permission. Great in theory, but a pain to execute and there will always be children whose parents are happy for them to be on the website so those who are wary can just select no. Personally i’d have had no issue with it but as you do OP just contact them to withdraw consent. Sure they will ensure your DC steps aside if any group photos on any days out or group activities.

To market the school to prospective parents.

What risks?

Bedsides,it's the parents that allow them to be online.

You literally quoted my earlier post up thread where I mentioned the risks and linked to an article where the NSPCC and Internet Watch Foundation outlined risks of photos of children on the internet…

That's the danger of parents sharing
"Tommy Martin Jones is here! Born at London Hospital at 7:45 this morning. Welcome the world little one!"

Now we know Tommy was born on 1st January 2024,in London .We have his DOB, and full name.

What are fraudsters going to do with "slightly crap photo of a generic 5 year old student looking at butterfly release from London Primary"

And in the Guardian yesterday an article about how Meta can use your instagram pictures to promote themselves
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/20/parents-outraged-meta-uses-photos-schoolgirls-ads-man?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Most schools are full or over subscribed due to class number limits and most of the time you have to go to your local school due to catchment to get in in the first place, so I don’t really buy into this reason!

@HateThursdays depends where you live. Very few Primaries around here are oversubscribed, in fact many of them are having to reduce number of classes to reduce staffing costs. Falling birth rates are having a massive impact.

My daughters school has one. I didnt consent to her photo being shared on it. I never consent to photos on social media because my view is that it's not my consent to give.

Well,loads of ours aren't...

Not round here. Most of the villages have their own school and a few of them have already moved to mixed year classes. One closed last year. DS now in year 5 is the last fully subscribed class they've had.

I’d love to live where all of you live (I’m not disbelieving you, I can see that villages might be like that), most towns and cities like mine though really don’t need advertising through insta. Everyone knows which are the best schools here and the people who move here from out of town are left with the worst schools no matter what they want!