Taking photo's of your events is a great way of promoting your business...but is it against the law to post any photo's of children online via a business Website or Social Media site like Facebook.....
Taking photo's of your events is a great way of promoting your business...but is it against the law to post any photo's of children online via a business Website or Social Media site like Facebook.....
It's not direct offence, but essentially - yes.
Photos and videos of children are classed as personal data under the Data Protection Act, which applies to any commercial organisation (which would include all of us). I can't remember exactly, but there are 8 principles of the act which need to be fulfilled, and the most applicable one here is that the data should be kept secure. Posting it on a website is clearly not keeping it secure.
I think the waters are muddied a little with regards to journalism, as I believe there are limited exemptions for journalistic use.
Personally, I wouldn't worry about it too much if the children are incidental to a photo, but I wouldn't include a photo on my website with children as the focal point.
I have this in my contract..
I think the best way for this is don't publish in any form , photos with children in them.., could save a lot of hassel.Crimson Tide reserve the right to take photographs for promotion purposes only , no children will be photographed without express permission from parent/guardian
Cheers
daryll
darylldj.co.uk , serving hampshire , Surrey and sussex
Dazzy D
Lightning Disco & Entertainment
Born to make you party!
You need a model release form.
Download here:
http://www.professionalphotographer....l-Release-Form
Lee
Lee Live: Wedding DJ
http://www.djLeeLive.com/
We have become a really sad and paranoid nation.
I'm tempted to say you're wrong, just because you've raised the likelihood of that event.
Since I have no idea of the legalities at all, all I can say is:
Correct. With that in mind, logic suggests that not putting pictures of pre-teens on websites and Facebook et al is a sensible course of action.
It does include children, too.
The reason I know this, and I've mentioned this before on here, was that a lot of schools where saying parents couldn't take photos at school events because it was against the law. However, a number of parents challenged this to the point that the Department for Education actually wrote to schools advising them that it was the school's decision whether or not to allow photographs to be taken but they shouldn't be perpetrating the myth that it was a legal issue. In fact, they actually encouraged schools to allow parents to take photos at things like sports day, school plays, etc. as they felt parents should have this right.
Home Office Minister Tony McNulty made this comment:
General advice for photographers:"There is no legal restriction on photography in public places, and there is no presumption of privacy for individuals in a public place.
It could be said that your venue is a public place - after all, you may well need a Public Performance Licence in place to play your music there even though it is, seemingly, a private function. The general rule of thumb is how you conduct yourself. If you're acting suspiciously then you could well get pulled up. If you're taking a picture of 100 kids doing the Cha Cha slide then it's not very likely. And it's best to respect peoples wishes. If they ask not to be photographed, don't do it. If someone takes offence at their, or a family member's picture on your website, replace it. It's good public relations at the end of the day.There are no laws against taking photos of children, but someone taking an unhealthy interest can rightly expect to attract unwelcome attention from the authorities (and quite probably passers by) pretty sharpish.
Be also mindful that if you're taking pictures in areas where dodgy folks, drug dealers and ne'er do wells may be in view, they're unlikely to be pleased with the attention and probably won't be bothered about the niceties of the law in their response.
If someone asks you to stop take pictures of them, it's generally a good idea to do so.
My brother in law used to be a photographer and was a member of some union or association for photographers. It was from him, and the links he used to provide me, that built my knowledge of the law surrounding taking photos. And the law is a lot more lenient on picture-taking than a lot of people will have you believe!
The general guidelines is that you should obtain a model release form (sometimes called an intellectual property release) from the subject of your pictures when those pictures are going to be used for commercial purposes. And a business website will fall under that description. However, if you set up a site showcasing your pictures but not directly selling your services - an online album or a blog, for instance, then this release form is not needed.
Also, is it really viable to get those 100 kids doing the Cha Cha Slide to each complete a form? And let's not forget, if they are under a certain age, it's the signature of their parent or legal guardian that is required as this form is really a contract between the subject and the photographer for the use of the image. So is it really practical to chase 100 kids, get their parent's contact details, send each one a form, plus a copy of the photos that you plan to use, wait for every single one being returned and then you're safe to use the image? The simple answer is that it's not practical at all. And this is generally accepted. Therefore, it's plausable to use those crowd scene images without model release but, bear in mind, if you receive a request to take it down then it's good practise to oblige. The alternative is to blur faces which requires good image editing software to ensure the images are still up to being used commercially.
Last edited by DazzyD; 14-01-2014 at 11:52 PM.
Dazzy D
Lightning Disco & Entertainment
Born to make you party!