Are there rules about students full names on school websites?

[reggiep]

I'm constantly updating our school website and quite often get items with photographs of students and their full names.

I always remove their surname and try not to identify them in pictures.

But then quite often we will link to a newspaper item which then has full names and pictures!

Am I being over cautious when I should be able to put the full info on our site?

 

Ta

[ToyHeartsFan]

Their age comes into it a bit but it is basic child protection i.e. hello john smith your daddy has sent me to collect you...

 

You should use names or photos but not both; you MUST have permission from their parents / guardian – do not assume a teacher has this permission when they say hi can you put this pic / vid on the school website. The risk is relatively low with older children but you still need permission extreme examples: what happens if a violent estranged partner finds out where his ex is living because you posted a child’s name / photo on your website. What if some random person uses the details you post to search for them on facebook etc… and then start’s stalking them?

 

Is everyone over protective and paranoid? Possibly, but do you want to be the one that got it wrong?

[AngryTechnician]

Mostly it comes down to permission. Parents/guardians must be asked for consent for pictures and names to be published. If you have consent for full names with photos, there should be no legal issue. If you don't have consent for full names with photos, then the school should not be releasing them to the paper for publication either! Edited April 20, 2012 by AngryTechnician

[elsiegee40]

As a matter of course we never identify students by full name on the website... or the school newsletter which gets published on the website!

 

Parents are asked for permission to use photos of their children when they join the school and we tell them we will never use full names without their permission.

 

We have occasionally rung parents who have said 'no' on joining the school if we have a particular photo we want to use and the parents have always agreed!

 

Names only go to the press with parental permission.

[Sylv3r]

It's not just about having blanket permission at the start of the year - any photo and full name either pubished on the school website or in a newspaper ideally needs explicit permission. It's often a bit of an administrative nightmare, but it's certainly what we do here as much as possible.

[Rozzer]

Hi All,

 

I am hitting the same question from SLT. Is there an official guideline for this? Non becta...

 

Thanks,

 

Ross

[AngryTechnician]

If they want something official, tell them to call your LA child services team and they will explain basic child protection to them. This was covered in our CP training and there's no good excuse for SLT not understanding it.

[Roberto]

It should be something that's known at all senior levels of the org - you need permission to use personal info and should be very careful about where and how its used.

 

The obvious example is a child that's been removed from bad parents and placed into foster care for their own protection being traced by family that's not supposed to have contact with them through this kind of leak. This could potentially have tragic consequences.

[psydii]

Further to the already sound advice above...

 

Does the Department have a policy for schools on the use of photographs in newspapers and magazines? - Popular questions

 

Example implementation:

https://slp4.somerset.gov.uk/schools/kingston-st-mary/Key%20Information/Pupil%20images%20policy%20and%20guidance.pdf

 

If your SLT are signed up to The Key, point them at this page:

http://www.usethekey.org.uk/pupils-and-parents/safeguarding-children/procedures/use-of-images-of-pupils-sample-consent-forms

Edited June 1, 2012 by psydii

[dave.81]

I'm having this discussion at the moment about press reports, is it all guidelines? The local press refuse to print any pictures without names, the other local schools list names.

[GrumbleDook]

No, schools and local authorities are free to decide on their own policies relating to the use of such images or the release of associated information for their own publicity purposes. We do, however, advise photographs and video images of pupils and staff are classed as personal data under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998. Therefore using such images for school publicity purposes will require the consent of either the individual concerned or in the case of pupils, their legal guardians.

Above information extracted from Does the Department have a policy for schools on the use of photographs in newspapers and magazines? - Popular questions

[Rozzer]

Its more with the confusion around putting a photo with a name. We have permission to add photos from parents. Just bit of confused around names with pictures.

 

Ross

[AMLinington]

As a fully paid up member of the tin-hat brigade my future-childs school is going to receive very strict instructions regarding the things I do not consent to regarding my children. Use of their images and names in school publications will be banned, videoing and photography of my child will be strictly prohibited so that teacher that thinks they can get away with not teaching a class in the guise of kids creating 'videos' will suffer my wrath. School photo day will not be a problem for my child as they will not be permitted to be photographed. I will not allow the school to take or use their fingerprints either. Whenever a parental consent form comes home the blanket answer will be 'NO'.

 

Many many people have very strong feelings about their child's image NOT being used. I would definitely say 'Permission all the way'. If a teacher wants to submit something to the school website, the TEACHER should seek permission from the child's parent or Guardian for both Image AND Name. That way any child requiring special protection such as anonymity can still be protected and there is no abiguity. If they have not signed (and ticky boxes can be filled in by the student so a signature is much better) for the Name as well as the image, then only the image can be used. It covers you as well so if they try to sue you can point at the signed permission form and say 'you said we could use name AND image'.

 

Child protection would definitely say 'keep the names out of it' though.

[GrumbleDook]

From an SLT point of view, some of this is about consistency. If the concerns (very valid ones) are that children whose identity should not be shared around for legal / protective reasons are treated differently to others then that can (and does) cause problems. Then you consider what could go wrong if names and pictures are shared (effectively 2 pieces of identifying data so that could be considered divulging information without permission by the ICO) then you have to say stop. This is before you even start to address the concerns of parents themselves ...

 

However, some folk (local media?) don't consider or have these concerns ... they are interested in selling papers or getting hits on websites. By putting in a full name next to a picture (and school name ... and road name ...) it gets the rest of the family to buy the paper amongst other things but doesn't take into consideration other problems it generates. This has led to some interesting and heated conversations between schools, papers and us.