[Year 12 IPM] website photos

[Meadows, Roslyn M]

Shane - Does your school follow the privacy laws when publishing photos and names of students on your Internet site? That is do you have the student's and parent's permission for each photograph published? A blanket approval at the beginning of each year is not adequate - you need to have specified the exact photo (ie a description) for each instance of publication, and get permission for that photo to be used. The laws are quite stringent - I know that legally you cannot publish photgraphs/names etc without the person's permission. Your school could be sued by the student and/or parent for publishing without this permission. If you are to get permission, then you need to explain on the permission form the exact details of what is to be published, (and perhaps the ramifications of publication of these details).  
 
I know that I certainly do not want my children's names published on their school's website - although I am not so fussed if they appear in a group photo with no names given, or if their name is published (eg as a winner of something) without a photograph. To me the potential problem lies in the tying together of name, school, and photo (someone could potentially wait outside the school, see my daughter, call her name and spin some story about her mother asking him to pick her up)
 
Personally I don't want my own photo on our school website for any reason (too old and ugly!), and I was quite horrified to find that a photo of myself (which I had never seen) had been used in a marketing pamphlet without me even knowing!
 
Does the school have to publish these photos on their internet site, perhaps if they are purely for the enjoyment of the kids and parents they could be published just on the intranet site (and therefore a password would be required) I know that my own children certainly enjoy looking at the pics of their school events (eg aths sports, school assemblies or drama presentations) but is there really a need for people outside of the school community to see anything other than unnamed faces doing science experiments in a well equipped lab? And is there a reason for names?
 
I am sure someone else would have a link to a website which outlines the exact laws. I may be wrong in some details but my understanding of what was discussed at our school last year is basically outlined above.
 
Cheers
 
Ros Meadows
Bentleigh SC
9579 1044
meadows.roslyn.m at edumail.vic.gov.au
 
"Furious activity is no substitute for understanding." H. H. Williams 

________________________________

From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Shane Mansfield
Sent: Thu 7/28/2005 11:50 AM
To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management Teachers'Mailing List; Year 12 Information Technology Processing and ManagementTeachers'Mailing List
Subject: [Year 12 IPM] website photos



Hi All,

I am currently attempting to convince our development/marketing department to refrain from publicising student names under photos on our website. I have been educating them on the pitfalls of this practice and would appreciate some stories to illustrate my point. I would be keen to learn what other schools policies regarding images of students on their websites or If you have a story of strangers finding out student details from a school webpage ( not necessarily your own) and using this information to find out where they live or to harass them in some way I would appreciate you sharing it with me so I can pass them on. Thanks

regards

Shane Mansfield
IT Coordinator
The King David School
http://www.kds.vic.edu.au


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