World gone mad or totally justified ? North East Photography ban on school plays

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Andrew Davies Photography

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This morning i read in article in our local press stating that one of our local schools had sent a letter to parents asking them not to publish photos of the schools xmas play online stating that it is a risk to the childrens safety. There followed a mass of replies from parents agreeing with the stance.

The very same paper is publishing regular features of schools photos , from sports days to xmas plays.

I have just been to my own boys school play and there was an abundance of people shooting on there cellphones and some no doubt uploading straight to twitter facebook etc.


So I wonder how people see this , from my point of view I cannot see how on earth a photo of kids in a school play is a danger to the kids , surely if some strange person is going to sit at home looking for photos of kids then they will be able to find them in abundance everywhere so why does this make any sense ? Is this just another jump on photographers to make themselves look good or am i seeing this all wrong ?
 
the only justification i can see is if one of the kids in this years school play is subject to a child protection order. That aside it might be silly but its private premises so they can make whatever rules they like
 
I have been to my girls first nativity this week and we were not allowed to take photos as it could distract the children but some photos would be available on the school learning journey site. We were allowed to video though. Can't see how can be a safety issue, the only issue I could see would possibly be if a child had some sort of protection order placed to keep their identity secret for whatever reason and couldn't have photos with them in if you get me?
 
I would have thought the danger was infinitesimal. Photos online can normally be geo tagged backward especially from careless parents with smart phones.
On the flip side it is private property and I believe this means they can add this restraint to photography.
 
Peter69 said:
I would have thought the danger was infinitesimal. Photos online can normally be geo tagged backward especially from careless parents with smart phones.
On the flip side it is private property and I believe this means they can add this restraint to photography.
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Hi Peter , not sure I am understanding , are you saying that someone online can work out the location of the children in the photo ? not sure why they would do that the chances are its already obvious from where the play and school and person on fb etc are ?
 
Maybe a child has been taken away from their parents for their safety and the parent might try take them back if they found their location etc? I can only really see child protection orders being the only reason to stop photography at schools
 
Like I say the risks are so small but there are some weird people out there
 
I was watching an interview on Channel 4 news the other day nothing to do with children,but one of the ladies was losing her argument hands down so she pull out the card.

"What about the Children"

:(:arghh:
 
My kids school say at the start of plays that's okay to photo for private use and not to post over facebook for privacy reasons

A friend school bans it completely as she has child under protection orders
 
Politically correct madness IMHO. :cow:
 
I work in a local primary school where the parents are asked before events not to put photos of other children onto social media sites. We have in the past been made aware by some parents of pics being put onto Facebook and the head teacher was involved and asked parents to remove them (which they did willingly).

There are several reasons why they are asked not to put pics on social networks - the main one is that at our school we have a number of children in care who have been moved for protection (in some cases from violent homes) and the school does their upmost to protect them, having their photos on social media with school details could put those children at risk.

At the beginning of each school year parents are asked to fill in and sign a form which declares where their child's photo/video can be used and their choices are respected. Many children cannot be used on the web and some are not allowed to have photos of the children used anywhere in school.

It is a shame that it has come to this but every child's safety must be paramount!
 
Just because putting loads of photos of your kids has become the norm doesnt mean that everyone feels that way, and that should be respected. If people are so desperate to post photos of their kids on the interweb then just blurr the faces of the other kids.

The head at my boys primary says not to put them on social media and they are for private use only. He has stipulated the rules and it should be respected. Whether parents agree with it or not is irelivant.

I happen not to mind but if I did I'd be well annoyed thinking that my child can't be in a school play, sports day ect without their photo being plastered over facebook without permission.

Rules are rules whether you agree with them or not.
 
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Also its not just about kids being put in danger, its about that some people don't want photos of their kids all over the web. Facebook wants to know enough as it is, where you went to school, who you're married to, all you relatives, not to mention every bit of uninteresting crap people write about their lives (who cares what someone has for dinner). Its not political correctness gone mad because its not political correctness. Its rules. And those that dont like it need to get some respect for others.
 
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You are totally missing my point - I want pictures of my kids, that has nothing to do with a lack of respect for some arbitrary rules that make little sense when examined by anyone with an ounce of sense. Fortunately, mine are now at college and university so I have them. Everyone after us would seem destined to be denied precious reminders.

This sort of nonsense is in the same category as banning all kids from bring nuts because one kid allegedly has an allergy. There is a distinct lack of proportionate response to an unproven cause.

Don't get me started about the buffoons who post their lunchtime sandwiches on facebonk et al.
 
*Sarah* said:
- the main one is that at our school we have a number of children in care who have been moved for protection (in some cases from violent homes) and the school does their upmost to protect them, having their photos on social media with school details could put those children at risk.
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I understand that there is a risk, but TBH
I was a school governor about 20 years ago, of a 1st school.
And the no photography rule was enforced for exactly the same reason,
but this is obviously well before the days of FB.

However you could buy the schools video'd copy of the play at a price. ;)
I'm not really cynical btw, I'm just saying.
 
Went to my kids nativity today and they came of with the same thing. Only difference was they had there own photographer. £15 for a picture for facebook or £20 for an A4 print. Needless to say I took my own screw them they can take me to court if they want.
 
I totally understand the child protection orders, however it is preventing absent (working) parents from seeing their children doing something great, and removing the memories and the photos to show future generations how it was. Its social history, and family history that suffers. A good friend is a foster carer and has children from violent homes regularly. He sends copies of school photos etc through the channels to the kids parents however all the school badges etc are removed to stop them being traced.
 
[devil'sadvocate]

Steve Smith said:
There is no way they can control that.

Steve.
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No but by requesting that shots taken aren't shared on FB, they're allowing shots to be taken for personal use and in these days of automatic face detection and tagging, should shots turn up on FB, the school could (arguably justifiably) slap a blanket ban on all parent photography at such events and enforce the ban.

Seahorse said:
You are totally missing my point - I want pictures of my kids, that has nothing to do with a lack of respect for some arbitrary rules that make little sense when examined by anyone with an ounce of sense. Fortunately, mine are now at college and university so I have them. Everyone after us would seem destined to be denied precious reminders.

This sort of nonsense is in the same category as banning all kids from bring nuts because one kid allegedly has an allergy. There is a distinct lack of proportionate response to an unproven cause.

Don't get me started about the buffoons who post their lunchtime sandwiches on facebonk et al.
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Two points in this, the school in the OP is allowing photography for parents' own use, just asking them not to share the shots on FB and the like (which is IMO fair enough for the child protection reasons mentioned by others, however small the risks.) The nut allergy one is difficult - should the allergic child go into anaphylaxis and die because another child wanted his/her peanut butter sarnie? Should allergic kids be excluded from "normal" schools? Easier (and safer) to ban nuts from packed lunches.

f/2.8 said:
Went to my kids nativity today and they came of with the same thing. Only difference was they had there own photographer. £15 for a picture for facebook or £20 for an A4 print. Needless to say I took my own screw them they can take me to court if they want.
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See above - ignore the school's rules/requests and you may well see a blanket ban and should you choose to ignore it, you could be excluded from further performances. I would agree that the prices from the official photographer is a bit steep though.

[/devil'sadvocate]
 
Seahorse said:
You are totally missing my point - I want pictures of my kids, that has nothing to do with a lack of respect for some arbitrary rules that make little sense when examined by anyone with an ounce of sense. Fortunately, mine are now at college and university so I have them. Everyone after us would seem destined to be denied precious reminders.

This sort of nonsense is in the same category as banning all kids from bring nuts because one kid allegedly has an allergy. There is a distinct lack of proportionate response to an unproven cause.

Don't get me started about the buffoons who post their lunchtime sandwiches on facebonk et al.
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That is my point. People want photos off their kids in their school play etc. But if people keep posting them on facebook etc then the school is just going to say an out right no to photos/videos. It only takes a few parents to complain because they've seen their children on other peoples facebooks. It would be a lot easier to say no to a any photos than take the flak. I don't want to not be allowed to take photos of my kids at these things because some people can't follow rules.
 
*Sarah* said:
There are several reasons why they are asked not to put pics on social networks - the main one is that at our school we have a number of children in care who have been moved for protection (in some cases from violent homes) and the school does their upmost to protect them, having their photos on social media with school details could put those children at risk
!
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from who and how ?
 
SOME PEOPLE MAY NOT WANT PHOTOS OF THEIR CHILD ON SOCIAL MEDIA. THE REASON IS IRRELEVANT.
Also
THE SCHOOL HAVE ASKED THAT PHOTOS NOT BE PUT ON SOCIAL MEDIA OF OTHER PEOPLES CHILDREN. THE REASON FOR THAT IS ALSO IRRELIVANT!!!!!
 
donut said:
from who and how ?
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Sadly....from (potentially) their biological parents - from whom the children have been removed for their own safety.
 
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[QUOTE="Seahorse, ]

This sort of nonsense is in the same category as banning all kids from bring nuts because one kid allegedly has an allergy. There is a distinct lack of proportionate response to an unproven cause.

.[/QUOTE]

Ok nut allergy.
My daughter has a severe peanut allergy. Opening a packet or peanuts in the same room as her would trigger an attack. Her face swells, her throat swells and within ten minutes she is having trouble breathing at which point she has to be injected and have medical treatment to save her life.

We had a holiday to Florida ruined by someone with your attitude on a plane. Despite an announcement over the tannoy about a severe peanut allergy on board which would be affected even if a packet was opened, some fool 6 rows back decided this was scaremongering and didn't apply to him. Plane diverted to Ireland,after an epipen injection so she could breathe, my 8 year old daughter in hospital for two days and a whole plane load of passengers affected.
There are people out there with severe allergies. Lucky the effects seem to be reducing as she gets older.
 
They've always banned the general taking of photos at my little lads school plays due to protection issues with certain children which I think is fair enough... what they do say though is that if parents want to take a picture of their child dressed up afterwards on their own then they can - so I've always seen that as a happy medium :thumbs:
 
This is a difficult one and being an ex school governor and the parent of a teacher I can see why it is easier just to have a ban on parents taking photo's.
Let me use a hypothetical example last year at Molly's school, a small primary school, no children were subject to a Child Protection Order (CPO) so the school is happy to let parents take photographs. This year little Johnny arrives and he is subject to a CPO. The school says no photographs. Parents ask why, school says they are protecting vulnerable children. Parents know Johnny is the only new kid in school. Doesn't take much for them to see him as the problem. So it is easier to have the ban, than have to change because of one child. My Daughters school has hundreds of photographs of the kids doing things, but my daughter is getting quite apt at including a couple of vulnerable kids in the photographs without actually showing there faces.
 
The vulnerable child issue is the easiest explanation and you'll never know if this is true or not. I know a primary school that banned photos because the parents were disrupting the performance, even down to one mother walking to the front and calling for her child to look at the camera and smile.

We, collectively as parents have brought it on ourselves.
 
I can understand the arguments for bans from a personal viewpoint, sadly this is a by product of many broken relationships, which weren't so common back in my school days. However the loss of social history is I think over exaggerated since back when I was at school the average parent didn't have access to equipment that could take photographs or videos in such circumstances, yet looking at our family albums, my childhood seems pretty well recorded.
 
Raptor Mike said:
SOME PEOPLE MAY NOT WANT PHOTOS OF THEIR CHILD ON SOCIAL MEDIA. THE REASON IS IRRELEVANT.
Also
THE SCHOOL HAVE ASKED THAT PHOTOS NOT BE PUT ON SOCIAL MEDIA OF OTHER PEOPLES CHILDREN. THE REASON FOR THAT IS ALSO IRRELIVANT!!!!!
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well maybe they should wrap them in cotton wool and put them in the cupboard under the stairs until they get to their early twentys ( just in case some perv with a camera sees them out in the street )
 
People can see children walking to school every day.. playing out.. weekends. holidays.. local clubs and sports.. they can all be seen.. whats the difference between that and facebook ? you can still see them?
 
donut said:
well maybe they should wrap them in cotton wool and put them in the cupboard under the stairs until they get to their early twentys ( just in case some perv with a camera sees them out in the street )
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...its all got a bit shouty in here :D
 
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yeah but no but yeah but ee started it:)
 
Once the school lets parents take photos, they can't control what happens after that - regardless of how nicely they ask. Some people will ignore them and do as they please.

My parents have fostered many children, they have been taken away from their biological parents for good reason.
Photos of children with protective orders cannot be allowed to find their way online for public viewing. (edit. Well if it can be helped at least, street photography not included :D )

In light of this, a blanket ban on photography in schools seems reasonable to me.

But then I am not a parent and think it less than likely I will decide to have children (but never say never)
 
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