Archive for October, 2007

I'd love to suggest the miracle solution to this problem, but I can't. Ultimately I do agree that parents should have the final decision on whether or not their children can have their photo in the newspaper or in the Internet, and whether or not their names can be used, etc. It's their choice.

The problem is: The kids are the ones who are losing out.

As recently as six months ago, if I was doing a picture at a school then all I'd have to check was which kids could have their photo taken. Usually the answer would be that all of them could. And that would be the end of it.

But the situation has rapidly got more complicated.

Firstly schools began splitting permission slips into different sections. Parents could choose if their child could have their photo taken, or be recorded on video, or both. Some parents who had previously said yes on the generic permission slips were now agreeing to photos but saying no to video. The choice was further expanded to cover images taken for the school, images taken for newspapers, and images intended for Internet use. Most parents agreed to school and newspaper use, but a significant number said no to Internet use.

The reason why this is a problem is that you end up having to exclude kids from certain photos. As much as I accept that this is my job and I'm basically just there to push a button, I do resent having to tell a child that they can't be in a photo for a reason that they might not understand.

And it can vary from job to job. I could be doing a photo for one paper one day and all the kids can be in it. Then the next day I'm doing a photo of the same kids for a different paper, and I have to exclude two kids because that paper has a web site.

Now the permission slips have grown to include even more options. Parents are asked if their kids can be named in the newspaper. And if they can, is it both names or just first names? And yes there is a split with some parents agreeing to full names and some agreeing to first names only.

Let me give you a real example of why this is bad for children…

I was doing a photo at a school the other day and someone mentioned that it was the 5th birthday of the youngest girl in the school, so I suggested also getting a photo of her in case the paper wanted to use it. That was fine and we set aside a couple of minutes at the end.

Sweet photos, yes?

What's wrong with them is that they aren't the photos that the little girl wanted to do. There were two boys who had taken her under their collective wing that day, and she wanted them to be in the photo. When I told her where I wanted her to sit for the photo, the two boys got into position on either side.

Immediately I had one thought in my mind: Permission slips!

What if one or both of the boys didn't have photo permission? And if they did, what if their names couldn't be used? Or what if only their first names could be used?
Can you imagine the caption?

Inver Primary School pupil Kelly Mitchell, who celebrated her 5th birthday on the day of the region's inter-schools fun run, proudly displays her medal which she won for taking part in the race. She is pictured with her friend Robert (surname withheld) and another boy who cannot be named.

Okay, okay, so we'd figure out a way to write the caption a bit better than that, but you can see my point. It's getting ridiculous.

And if it turns out that one of the boys can't have his photo in the paper then do we scrap the photo or just crop him out of it? Put a black box over his face?

I had to play safe and ask the boys to step aside.

(Doing some photos with them and some without wasn't an option. Often I have literally 10 seconds to set-up and take these photos.)

Let me tell you what I don't like about this situation, because it's nothing to do with my job getting any more difficult, or me making less money because I can't do as many photos, or anything cynical along those lines.

It is another part of childhood being lost.

As an adult, can you imagine having a little group of three kids wanting you to take their photo, and you have to tell two of them to go away? It's a horrible thing to have to do. It wouldn't have surprised me at all if the little girl had started crying, but thankfully the two boys handled it really well and they stayed just out of frame to keep her smiling. But easily one of the boys could have got upset and that would have got the girl upset. In the space of a couple of seconds we'd have gone from the birthday girl getting her photo in the paper to us not getting the photo at all because she was in tears. All because of those little permission slips that were filled out goodness knows how many months ago.

As I said at the beginning of this, I wish I could suggest the miracle solution to this problem, but I can't. But I do think it's a real problem and a solution is needed.

Perhaps schools need to try a little education aimed at parents? For example:

• Internet usage
  Suggest to parents that they should only deny Internet usage if they believe it presents a real, plausible danger to their child. Not just because they read some nonsense scare story in the Daily Mail five years ago. (Perverts read newspapers too, they aren't an Internet-only phenomenon.)
• First and last names
  Again perhaps the use of names should only be restricted if there is a specific reason for doing so? Such as in the case of a custody dispute, or domestic abuse. There can be genuine reasons, but make sure those boxes are being ticked or crossed for a reason, not just on a whim.

This is a problem that transcends journalism. And to be fair it also transcends individual schools because it comes from councils, and above the councils it comes from government.

But whoever makes the rules, I believe they need to be re-evaluated.

Just imagine yourself being in that situation of taking a photo of a little girl on her birthday, and having to tell her two friends to go away because you can't risk having them in the photo. I think that one example alone makes it abundantly clear that the situation has already gone too far.