Can someone tell me if it is legal for a teacher to post pictures of their students on their Myspace page?

Question

There is an elementary teacher at the school where my wife teaches that has created a MySpace page and has posted pictures of her kindergarten students without their consent. A few parents have asked me and I'm not sure. Does anybody know the legality of posting without parental consent?

Answer 1

Depends on the state.  At my school (I'm a teacher) parents sign a waver saying yes or no to photos of the child being used for publication of any sort.  If there is no consent, she may have dug herself a nasty little hole.

Answer 2

No, I'm sure there is some legal requirement of parental consent or something

Answer 3

Any of the parents who are upset over this should just get together and speak kindly to the teacher about removing the photos.

He/she probably didn't even realize that there was a problem, and will most likely remove them if you ask.

If they refuse, then take the issue to the principal.

Answer 4

May or may not be legal. Not a good idea to do this though.

Answer 5

you can not post pictures of minors w/o parental consent...however, most school districts include a video/photo waiver in the paperwork you use to sign your kid  up for school with each year...she may have signed it w/o even knowing it...

Answer 6

It is illegal to post any type of images of minors on the internet without parental consent.

The K teacher may have good intentions and be unaware of the law. Maybe she is just proud of her little class...but regardless, if it were my student, or my child I would be very upset about this.  

Your wife would be very helpful if she  kindly told her co-worker that parents were complaining, it is against the law and potentially detrimental to the childrens well being.  To go a step further in her thinking!

If the K teacher does not adhere to your wifes advice and delete her page altogether, than the my space page should be saved to a disk and the  information should be brought to the superintedant's attention.

Answer 7

Regardless of the legality, it's not smart and potentially dangerous to the kids.  if parents are all steamed about it, they should talk to the principal and/or school administration.  However, I would recommend they first just tallk to the teacher, who may not have considered the consequences.  If just taking the pictures down will solve the problem without official involvement -- which might get the teacher reprimanded or fired -- then why not go that route first?

Answer 8

I have been a teacher for 23 years in the secondary fields of English/History and this is something that I would definitely not do unless I had the permission - written that the parents knew and had no problems with it . If it is legal or not , I do not know for sure , but in today's time I would not even go near it. I have put up in my classroom a board where students are free to put their picture and even two sheets so they could put in a comment about themselves , no one else . I let students put them up themselves or give them to me and I post them . My classroom only . Those pictures are for my room only and I would not even begin to think of putting them on the internet where some pedophile might have a chance of finding them .

I would not do it . Teachers are already under scrutiny for everything and you will always find someone to find something dirty in it .

Answer 9

It's not legal without consent.....

You can and I do post pictures by having the students "pose" with their backs to the camera around a project. They can show their friends they were there and involved in the project, remember learning is what's important, or said a better way is: "What's important is learning."

Answer 10

Probably not legal but makes you sad to realize that we live in a time where that can be abused and manipulated, photos of kindergarten children.

The general rule in the United States is that anyone may take photographs of whatever they want when they are in a public place or places where they have permission to take photographs. Absent a specific legal prohibition such as a statute or ordinance, you are legally entitled to take photographs. So, it might pay to check out local ordinances.

Check it out here for more info:

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6142_102-0.h...

Laws differ from state to state and country to country regarding privacy and publicity - and a minor has the added complexity of involving parent/guardian in the release process. Generally, an individual has the right to control the use of their own image commercially - and that isn't always clear as to what is commercial or to what people may object to even if "legal".

We could play "What if's" all day but the best answer is in knowing the laws of your locale.

http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-ms...

Answer 11

That may depend on the state and/or the country. I think in most places it would be illegal. It is certainly not ethical. I think that somebody should kindly confront the teacher about it. It is not necessarily done with evil intent, and often people don't realize they are doing anything wrong.  If a parent, for instance, should complain to the teacher, and explain why she or he doesn't appreciate it, in most cases the teacher would realize they should remove the pictures.