Nursery and social media

[An0n1]

My sons nursery had previously posted his image on their public Facebook page which I'd not given consent for due to safeguarding reasons. I posted about this previously and spoke to the staff member who posted it and they were deeply apologetic which I accepted and I left it at that. The nursery are aware of the safeguarding concerns my son is affected by but I'm not sure how many of the staff actually working with him would be aware of the details.

They've just done the same thing again and I'm just so effing disappointed and cross. They seem like a great nursery on the whole, they put loads on for the kids, the staff are all lovely and most importantly ds seems really happy and settled there and has made new friends. This is important to me as he had to leave his previous nursery where he was really happy and his friends there too, so the last thing I want to do is have to move him again because he initially found settling in hard and I just don't want to put him through it again. Pulling him out and not putting him straight into another setting isn't an option.

I've asked for a meeting with the senior management this time instead of just the staff on the ground who are responsible for the social media but I'm at a loss for what to say. I know if it happened again I'd pull him out 100% which I will tell them but more than that I feel like I want to do something/ work with them to ensure it doesn't happen again for ds sake but also for other kids in the setting. There's so few nursery places available where we live and I know people who've had issues with other settings so im wary of moving plus ds is hopefully due to get some funded hours and a pre pre place where he's currently at which makes a massive difference for me as a lone parent footing the bill and we won't get that if I move him so there's a lot of reasons to keep him where he is. I just fundamentally need to know they can manage to safeguard him effectively which is obviously crucial. Has anyone successfully dealt with this before and if so how did you approach it and what actions did the nursery take?

I haven’t had this experience, but I do understand your concerns. I have a family member who harasses us, and so far, we have not had issues with photos. But it would be an absolute shitstorm if it did.

In addition to senior management, I would actually take this to Ofsted. It is a completely routine thing to have children who do not have consent for photos on social media. There will be many children who they do not have photo consent for and I bet you are not the first family this has happened to. It’s a really serious safeguarding violation. Only staff who have access to those permissions lists should be posting photos and they should be checking the list each time they do.

I would want a protocol put in place for how they would prevent it happening again and I would want to see how they are following that and their documentation of photo consents. I imagine Ofsted would do the same.

Honestly despite all your reasons to keep him there I wouldn't be able to trust them and would have to move him. It's such a basic thing to get wrong that I wouldn't be able to get past it happening twice.

@An0n1 How frustrating when it seems like such a great nursery OP 😔 But it’s a huge safeguarding concern, as you know!! And it shouldn’t be hard for them to follow at all!

As has already been mentioned, only staff who have access to these lists should be distributing photos anywhere.

There are a couple of children at my sons nursery who do not have public photo consent and our nursery even blur them out of the background of photos that are shared with other parents on the internal app.

Are there any other procedures in place for your son? Like strict rules regarding pick up etc?

They know he's only to be released to designated people who are all listed on the app they use with photos so they should be able to check but it does really concern me. At the moment my ex doesn't know what nursery my son attends but I've had to send financial info to solicitors to progress the divorce and as a result of that he'll know there is a nursery even though I've redacted the name. It's not a big enough area that we live in that he couldn't figure it out if he really wanted to by looking online if they have his image public. I don't actually think he would do anything but equally I don't want to take any chances either. So I need to know that the nursery my son is attending is on top of things.

@An0n1 Id just worry about any safeguarding protocol if they can’t follow a very simple photo procedure!
You absolutely need to take it further!

DS went through Nursery with a friend who absolutely could not have his photo on SM. Both were really good about it. His photo never once appeared and at all events the parents were warned mot to put photos of the DC on SM. Plays abd nativities were filmed by the Nursery or School and distributed, which actually made parents watch it instead of fiddling with their phones.

I’m not sure if I would inform Ofsted or remove him yet, i would wait and see what the management say but I would put my concerns to them in writing and expect a response in writing too so tgat you have a trace.

I would be asking exactly what their process is for this, and how it broke down not once but twice.

I would be asking them to review the process and put in extra checks / change who can post.

We had this once at primary, with DD's picture ending up in the local paper (luckily as part of a group shot so v small). The paper was meant to ok the picture with the school, but didn't.

Iirc The process was changed so photos were reviewed before the photographer left and any photos not suitable due to safeguarding were deleted there and then.