Photography and video guidelines
Congregations should ensure that good practice is adhered to when photographing or videoing children and adults at risk of harm during church activities and may find the good practice guidelines produced by the Safeguarding Service helpful.
‘Photography', ‘video', and ‘recordings' include those media recorded on mobile phones and other such devices.
As an agency committed to caring for and protecting all vulnerable groups, we must ensure our actions and those of our congregation are appropriate. With regards to photographs and recordings, we would advise that written informed consent must be received by all before any photographs or recordings are made publicly available, e.g., on the church website, online even to a closed group etc.
We would advise that any personal identifying information (or personal data) should not appear online or go into the public domain unless informed consent has been obtained from a child and/or a protected adult and their parent or carers. If consent to share photographs or recordings is given, we would advise against publishing names of children or protected adults alongside the images.
Photographs that include children should be selected carefully and endeavour to prevent children from being easily identified.
Informed consent will be required for use of the photographs or recordings.
The SG20 Safeguarding Risk Assessment Guidance and a consent form for the proposed event should be shared with parents.
The SG19 Media Consent Form should explain the purpose of using the data and explain fully that the congregation can only stop processing information that it has direct control over.
Once information is shared online the congregation will not be able to guarantee that they can stop its use even if consent is withdrawn. This is to avoid situations where a child's personal data (including just their image) is posted to an open platform such as an open Facebook page or group or otherwise put into the wider public domain.
Mobile phones can be used to take photographs and videos which can be immediately uploaded onto the internet or social networking sites without permission. Therefore, group leaders should discourage the use of mobile phones during church activities. The group may wish to produce a mobile phone code of conduct to ensure safe usage. Group leaders must also not post photographs or videos taken while carrying their professional role on their personal social media site etc.
The Social Media Information and Guidelines section of the Safeguarding Service Handbook should also be referred to.
During large events, arrangements can be made by the host to provide video or photographic stills of the participants in action. This allows the performance to go ahead with limited interruption and allows the participants who are not to be photographed to take part. An open photo shoot can be held at the end of the performance (sensitively distracting any children not to be photographed) to allow families to take their own private shots.
Use of images should reflect diversity of age, ethnicity and gender within the activity.
Special consideration should be given where taking photographs or video footage might be misinterpreted, or the images could be seen as provocative (e.g., beach trip or gymnastics display etc.). It is not to say, however, that with the right planning, these events cannot be recorded and enjoyed.
Responsibility of storage and destruction of photographic material should be taken at sessional level and written agreement should be made for this purpose.
Photography and video recording are important methods of recording social activity, providing an historic record and illustrating and validating important moments in people's lives. This process is a powerful and personal one and therefore we must respect the rights of everyone to make the choice whether or not to be photographed.
The Safeguarding Service has produced the SG19 Media Consent Form which should be used.
Please refer to the Live Streaming Guidance section on the Church of Scotland website.