Hi all, I'm new to Mumsnet so apologies I'm missing the point !! I have recently had a bad/unexpected experience with my daughter's nursery and wondered what other people's thoughts are on the matter?
My daughter (aged 3) at the time attended a relatively high-end nursery in our area. We visited about 10 different nurseries before we opted for this one - just like me to pick the most expensive but she's our only daughter and I already feel guilty for going back to work so I was prepared to pay it.
Anyway....long story short, one day I looked at my Facebook newsfeed one morning and saw sponsored ads for the nursery with pictures of my daughter on - not the end of the world you would think, except my daughter was wearing different clothes in all of the images, non of them her own. One photo, she's sitting on a bench with a tiny pink ra-ra skirt on, legs spread wide (as 3yr olds have a habit of doing) camera pointing directly at her! Alarm bells ringing, I showed my husband and he agreed I should speak to nursery. Off I set to nursery with my daughter, and as I pulled up outside, there was a huge advertising banner on the main road with a photo of my little one. Again, you may think, not the biggest deal, it's a cute image, BUT, different clothes again!! By this point, I have to say I was livid so went marching into nursery. I was taken to the Principals office and she came out to speak to me. She could not understand why I was annoyed and was very defensive and told me I had signed a consent form for photos. She then told me that they had also used images of my daughter on billboards around the town on sponsored roundabouts and a digital advertising campaign in Post Offices. I actually felt sick and violated - my child had been undressed multiple times and used as a doll for publicity shots. I pointed out that nowhere on the consent form does it detail images being used in this way and surely if nothing else, it would have been polite to ask me before using all these images and displaying them!
I know nurseries are strapped for cash with the new 30hr free system and are looking for all kinds of ways to reduce costs but does anyone else think that this is going too far?
Just beware if your child is at nursery or starting a new one, I would hate for other parents to be caught out like we have and to feel like they have failed to protect their child :-(