Consent form for photos

[mikeprice]

Hi all - not sure of the best thread for this so ....

 

 

anyway - last year taking photso fo kids for the web site/ newspapers was a pain because lots of the parents didn't tick the consent box - so we ended up with teachers attempting to chase parents or having to choose small groups to represent the whole class - both of which were a pain

 

so this year I want a nice friendly positive SIMPLE form to send out

 

something like 'We really want to be able to celebrate to wonderful work you kids are doing by putting phots on the school web site, class twitter account.....'

 

etc etc

 

I was wondering if anyone has examples of such things that work in our school (preferably Primary) so I don't have to start from scratch??

 

TIA

 

Mike

[HBPS]

we have a standard form that asks them to tick to object they usually just sing and return it implying they consent. unless there is social care issues etc obviously

[Katy]

We have a form that they sign to give consent for things like school trips (day at the farm, sports fixtures etc) where there is no additional charge, at the bottom there's a box to opt out of publicity photos.

 

Edit: it's a generic form done once a year, not one form per trip

[elsiegee40]

You need to tread very carefully with this with GDPR landing on us soon. Hence I have move this to the Data Protection and Information Handling forum

[mikeprice]

You need to tread very carefully with this with GDPR landing on us soon. Hence I have move this to the Data Protection and Information Handling forum

 

Thanks

 

Any comments about how GDPR affects this??

[elsiegee40]

@GrumbleDook will give you full chapter and verse, but basically all permissions must be explicit.

 

As far I understand it, generic "You're in unless, or until, you say you're out" permissions are not acceptable

[StevieM]

Here is an anonymised example of the one we use. As well as consenting to our use of images, it includes third party use and rules for parents taking photos. We find this covers most instances, although on rare occasions we need to request explicit consent for a specific event. I hope you find this useful.

 

Photo Permission.pdf

Edited September 13, 2017 by StevieM

[DrCheese]

How do you guys keep track of this? We have a box on our intranet homepage that lists the students that we can't take photos of - But when taking say, photos of an assembly where the majority of the school is present, how do you deal with that?

[mikeprice]

How do you guys keep track of this? We have a box on our intranet homepage that lists the students that we can't take photos of - But when taking say, photos of an assembly where the majority of the school is present, how do you deal with that?

 

Photos of anything with just 'loads of kids' just cannot go on the website or to the press

 

To do so would requite checking every single face and checking it against the list - and then blurring the face out

 

Generally the class teachers know who cannot be in a web site photo and either keep the kids out of the photo or I will blurr them out

 

sometimes we just put that kid on the end and crop the photo a bit

[StevieM]

Photos of anything with just 'loads of kids' just cannot go on the website or to the press

 

To do so would requite checking every single face and checking it against the list - and then blurring the face out

 

Yep. That's what I have to do. Thankfully, there are only a handful of kids without permission so I know exactly who I'm looking for.

[mikeprice]

Last year we had loads of parents who withheld permission

 

Duuno why - maybe we sent the form out on a day where there was a scare story going round

 

but basically it was impossible to do any press releases with more than 5 kids and any general school photos were impossible

 

This year we are hoping to find a way to fix the problem

[Syman_a]

Previously, if a reply was not received to our "Opt out" letter stating they did not want their child's photo used, then the implication was it was ok.

 

I believe the rules are changing where by parents have to "opt in" rather than Opt out" for photo permission. So we will need explicit permission TO use a child's photo

Edited September 29, 2017 by Syman_a

[the_quick]

Form on it own, so far we had a paper version, that each year 7 receives. But we might change that and move to Google Forms, where we can store responses in spreadsheet. We still need to implement this. We have only handful of kids, that don't want to be on website photographs and we know them - but if we have more, it will cause us difficulties and delays in releasing photos to the public. Really shame , as it show how many trips we do and that pupils are really enjoying them.

[tj2419]

Just coming back to this in respect to GDPR.

 

We used to just do an opt out but are going to shortly be sending a letter out regarding giving consent with tick box.

 

Does anyone have an example of their photo consent form which is GDPR compliant?

 

With the consent age being 13 we are looking to get consent from parents in years 7 and 8 and consent from students in year 9 and above. Is anyone else following this practice?

 

Thanks

[rom1984]

 

With the consent age being 13 we are looking to get consent from parents in years 7 and 8 and consent from students in year 9 and above. Is anyone else following this practice?

 

Thanks

 

The general consensus that I have being hearing in the office is that parents can give consent throughout the child’s school life so you don’t have to draw a distinction between years 7,8,9+ etc. Not sure if that makes things easier for you or not!

[tj2419]

The general consensus that I have being hearing in the office is that parents can give consent throughout the child’s school life so you don’t have to draw a distinction between years 7,8,9+ etc. Not sure if that makes things easier for you or not!

 

That would make things massively easier, I thought the Data Protection Bill had lowered the age of consent to 13 years old?

 

Bill Section 9: the UK will apply a lower age limit for gaining valid consent from children when offering an information society service. In the UK consent will be valid from children of at least 13 years old.

 

Does that mean we can ask parents for consent up to sixth form then?

 

From what I can see the Data Protection Bill only refers to the age of 13 for consent with Information Society Services which are defined as "The Regulations refer to an "information society service". This is defined as "any service normally provided for remuneration at a distance, by means of electronic equipment for the processing (including digital compression) and storage of data, at the individual request of a recipient of the service", which would not include schools if I'm right?

 

Is there anywhere definitive that says whether schools need to get consent at 13 or 16?

 

Thanks

[the_quick]

Anyone is using online forms for that? I will look at Google Forms, but I heard someone will try to do this on MS Sharepoint

[rom1984]

Yeah the DP Bill and GDPR mentions age 13 but that is only relevant when offering information society service.

 

I think the GDPR for education guidance is still being written, but I spoke with one of the ladies that is involved with it and her opinion was that once you get consent from a parent in year 7, this will last throughout the child’s school life.

 

I asked the question that if you got consent from the parent in year 7 because the child did not have the capacity to understand, and then by year 9 they did have the capacity to understand, then the consent from year 7 would no longer be relevant or accurate. She said this was a valid point but she still thought that it was more practical and realistic to just keep the consent throughout the child’s school life.

 

However, if the child does gain the capacity to understand, then this doesn’t stop them from expressing any of their data protection rights. So for example if they got to year 11 they could put in a right to erasure request themselves and the school couldn’t refuse the request on the bases that their parents already consented.

[DrCheese]

However, if the child does gain the capacity to understand, then this doesn’t stop them from expressing any of their data protection rights. So for example if they got to year 11 they could put in a right to erasure request themselves and the school couldn’t refuse the request on the bases that their parents already consented.

They can withdraw photo consent yes, but they can't ask to have their data erased the second they leave school as UK law requires us to hold onto it for X amount of time (Likewise staff leavers) You just need to put all this in your privacy notice.

[rom1984]

They can withdraw photo consent yes, but they can't ask to have their data erased the second they leave school as UK law requires us to hold onto it for X amount of time (Likewise staff leavers) You just need to put all this in your privacy notice.

 

Yeah your right! If the person has the capacity to understand their decisions, and they express their rights under the GDPR, you couldn't refuse the request based on the consent you got from the parent prior to them gaining capacity. But of course you could refuse a request for erasure because its in the public interest that you keep the data. As well as photo consent, biometric data is also a good one for this example, so if the parent agrees that the school can process this data, but then the child gains capacity to understand and they put in an erasure request, the school should honour the child's data protection rights.

[SovietRussia]

Yeah your right! If the person has the capacity to understand their decisions, and they express their rights under the GDPR, you couldn't refuse the request based on the consent you got from the parent prior to them gaining capacity. But of course you could refuse a request for erasure because its in the public interest that you keep the data. As well as photo consent, biometric data is also a good one for this example, so if the parent agrees that the school can process this data, but then the child gains capacity to understand and they put in an erasure request, the school should honour the child's data protection rights.

Biometric data is slightly different as it comes under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 which already requires us to erase biometric if requested by child (regardless of their age)

[tj2419]

Do we need staff to sign a consent for for photo use for marketing?

[DrCheese]

Yes - You can't assume they'll give consent or sneak it into an employment contract unless it's your entire reason for being (i.e you're a modelling agency!)

[mrhall]

We're going to try asking students and parents of all year groups - the law seems to say year 9 can give their own permission - but if there are parents who have reasons to say no - and the students don't know why - then better we engage both of them in the process. We're using Edulink - so we'll use an electronic form. We're aiming to distinguish between

(a) internal photographs - the ones the school photographer takes, that we stick on SIMS and use internally (school canteen has them on their system, Edulink uses them...)

(b) publicity photographs- we'll only ever take shots of a group - not individuals - and we'll never name anyone...

© individual publicity photographs - which we don't think happens very often - but we'll get explicit consent at the time, by student and by parent.

 

This sounds like it will be enough.

 

Hoping students and parents don't disagree too often....

[Claireashton]

Any system you choose needs to be manageable for the organisation and this is written in the GDPR. Some schools, such as special schools, may decide that their students will never have the capacity to understand their data protection rights and will always refer to their parents. In all instances, the consent must be explicit and freely given - so opt in and not opt out. Once you have it, a record needs to be kept so if they are not returning the forms, they are not giving their consent. Applies to staff too. On the mention of consent and staff contracts, if these currently say something along the lines of, 'I give my consent for the school to use my data...' then this needs changing as the lawful basis for using personal data to employ people will no longer be consent, but to perform a contract. All decisions made about how you manage consent need to be documented as this forms part of the accountability principle.