Monday 28 June 2010

Photographs of children

Where do you stand on putting photographs of children online? This is a thorny debate with lots of different views of which mine are probably somewhere in the middle!


On my blog, twitter and blipfoto (as they are very public) I hardly ever put a recent photo of my children on with their full faces showing. You never know who will be browsing through those photos. So you will get something like this:


 

I also avoid showing other people's children if I can.

On Facebook you can adjust the privacy settings on each album so I hardly ever let anyone not on my Friends list see photos of my children. Some albums I restrict to just family and very close friends. This way you can share photos of your children with family from far and wide without everyone seeing them.

I got a rapped knuckle from another parent last night as I uploaded photos of her daughter's birthday party and she does not like photos of her children appearing on the Internet. I had restricted access to Friends & their friends as this mum isn't on my list but has mutual friends. As soon as she asked me to take them off I did so and changed album access to friends only. Another mum at the party had taken photos of her children on my phone and she knew I would put them on FB so she could see them. 

I know the simplest way around the dilemma of not knowing another parent's views on Internet photos is to not post anything with anyone but your kids on but sometimes that means you can't share fabulous photos with close family. So is it right to post photos to private, restricted albums when you haven't got permission from their parents? In the olden days the traditional printed photos could be shared to anyone are we too paranoid in this modern era of digital images and the Internet?

Please share your thoughts whichever side of the debate they are from!

7 comments:

  1. I post images of my children, but not of others without permission

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  2. My Facebook photos are friends only. I prefer them that way.

    As for my blog, I happily post pictures of my children but would never post pictures of other people's without permission, just as I'd expect anyone else to ask me permission to post pictures of mine.

    :)

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  3. I've thought a lot about this subject, and talked it over with my partner, but personally don't see a huge risk - if pics are used with care. I don't blog specific details about where we live, or socialise etc, or even my daughter's surname. And the pics I post are always fully clothed, and couldn't possibly be misconstrued in any way. I do agree that people need to be careful about the personal info the inadvertently reveal, like blogging about going to the 'such and such park every Wednesday at 10am'. I would never post pics of other people's kids without their express knowledge and permission. I'm also wary of the fact that technically I don't have my daughter's permission to use her image (as she is only two). When she is old enough to voice and make her own decisions about this, I will ask if she minds, and stop immediately if she does.

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  4. I post pictures of my own children but will never post pictures with other people's children in unless I know it's okay. I do think we live in a paranoid society but we also need to be careful in this day and age of fast free flowing information.

    My FB settings are for friends only as the friends of friends thing actually goes on and on to the point where you don't actually know who has viewed your photographs.

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  5. I have posted photos that included friends children without discussing it with them - usually when entering online photography competitions.

    My photographer head says they are my photos and I can post them where I want which is technically true since I own the copyright but I wouldn't post any information that could identify them, I rarely say anything much about anyone in my photos except my immediate family.

    I have stumbled across photographs of my own children in the local press used to advertise a photographer we used for a portrait session - my permission wasn't required or sought since the photographer has full rights to do what he wants with those photos.

    Facebook is a bit different since the myriad connections people have make it easier to identify unnamed people in photos.

    I've only once been asked to remove a photo since it included a child who was in the middle of the adoption process and apparently there's some condition on posting photos of them even if they are unidentified (I'm a bit sceptical about that tbh but obviously removed the photo immediately).

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  6. I always remove photos if people ask me too for whatever reason as its diplomatic.

    As a person whose children are performing at medieval re-enactments they are often photographed by strangers who knows where the photos go! Most people do ask permission of the adults before they take photos of the kids. Its not like they are photographing them in swimming things as medieval clothes cover everything!

    A professional photographer I know won awards for photographs of my kids in medieval kit. No-one knows the names or addresses of them so that is fine by me.

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  7. I only post pictures of my own children, set it to "friends only" and remove tags of myself from other people's photos. (I don't dare to ask remove them but I have asked to remove pictures of my children.)

    I'm just paranoid though.

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