Michael Webster: Privacy Commissioner on schools struggling with student photo restrictions
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How often do schools accidentally publish student photos without consent?
New research from the online world. This is interesting actually. Sixty eight percent of schools have accidentally published an image despite consent or privacy restrictions from parents. Just twelve percent of the uh twelve percent are confident they could go find and remove that image after it's published. So this seems to be a thing. Michael Webster's the privacy commissioner and he's back with us. Michael, morning. Morning Mike. This is a minefield for schools, isn't it?
How can digital photo manipulation put children’s privacy at risk?
Absolutely. We all know that uh recording a child's you know, special moments, sporting achievements is a lovely thing to do in most cases, but uh there are real risks out there, mainly due to the advances in digital technology, digital manipulation of photos, that sort of thing.
Are we going to simply no longer see the yearbook or the sports bulletin or the whatever? Because when I take a shot and in the shot are six kids crossing the line from the sprint, three of which have said I don't want my picture taken and published, you've just said, Don't worry, we won't publish any photos anymore.
How can schools photograph activities without identifying students?
Well, one of the things that we're saying to schools is uh try and focus on the activity rather than identifiaful identifiable faces, for example. So maybe take a photo of of the race or the school production, but not in a way that uh could lead to people uh cutting and pasting, for example, the faces of children out of that photo when it's put online, that sort of thing.
Are these rules or just advice? And if it is just advice, do we need rules?
What rules can help remove children’s photos from online platforms?
Uh there are three parts of this. There's advice and guidance for parents, uh, because they're the ones that take a lot of photos as well. Uh we need more effective regulation in the online environments. Uh I think we need For example, in New Zealand the right to erasure, so you can actually go to social media platforms and say, Take down that photo of me or take down that photo of my child. Uh Australia's looking at that right now, Mike, in fact. So that would be a rule. Yeah, but that that's not in the
work though, is it?
It it it it it is it is working in in other parts of the world because uh people are asking for the material to be taken down. Um but we also need uh online platforms to own uh that they should exercising more uh care over what ends up on their platforms. Uh it's their responsibility to ensure that really disturbing and and horrific and illegal photography. uh images doesn't appear on their platforms. No, exactly.
How should schools update photo policies and communicate consent?
The third is is is about guidance. We want schools to to look at their um photography and filming policies, to update them And to communicate them to to parents so that people understand rights around uh consent. uh that the capturing activity uh that they're keeping information safe, for example, that sort of thing.
How can parents protect children’s privacy when sharing photos online?
But but perhaps most importantly, in some ways, Mike, is that um if parents are taking these photos and putting them up on their own social media. Uh that they're thinking about their own social media privacy system. Good point. You know, lock it down. Yeah, make memories for families, not for the world and its bad guys, Mike. Yeah. Yeah, well that's half
the problem of course, isn't it, Michael? I mean half the people are loving the social media and going, Oh, we went here and look at us, we're eating crab and we had a lovely lunch and then the kids went down to the beach with a dog and there's a lot of that going on, isn't there?
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
How often do schools accidentally publish student photos without consent?
0:00–0:24
2
How can digital photo manipulation put children’s privacy at risk?
0:24–0:57
3
How can schools photograph activities without identifying students?
0:57–1:21
4
What rules can help remove children’s photos from online platforms?
1:21–2:14
5
How should schools update photo policies and communicate consent?
2:14–2:34
6
How can parents protect children’s privacy when sharing photos online?
2:34–3:13
Speakers
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