help

collapse

Press one of the expand buttons to see the full text of an article. Later press collapse to revert to the original form. The buttons below expand or collapse all articles.

expand

collapse

Hide Your Children

December 19, 2014 permalink

Parents in Abercynon Wales have been ordered to keep school pictures off the internet. The real reason is left to the end of the article. There are children in school under court orders. The administrators fear that bereft parents may discover the whereabouts of their children through posted pictures.

Think about it. The child protection regime requires abusive parents to hide their children. It also requires non-abusive parents to hide their children.

expand

collapse

Father 'furious' after being asked to remove a video of daughter's school nativity from Facebook

But Rhondda Cynon Taf council said parents were asked before the play started not to distribute photography of the play on social media

Douglas Holmes and Emmi-Rai
Douglas Holmes with daughter Emmi-Rai

A father said he is furious after his partner was asked to remove a video of their daughter performing in a school nativity play from Facebook.

Douglas Holmes said his four-year-old daughter Emmi-Rai had her nativity play at Ysnyboeth Primary School in Abercynon on Monday and played the role of the inn keeper.

His partner filmed the play and uploaded the video to Facebook.

But Mr Holmes, 30, said the next day she was asked by a teacher in the school - who appeared in the video - to take it down.

He said: “My partner doesn’t usually post videos on Facebook. But some parents couldn’t go to the play because of work. A friend of ours couldn’t make it and we managed to catch her daughter in our video so she posted the video.

“She wasn’t offending anybody but she was asked to remove it.

“We have removed it just in case they decided to take any further action.

“I was very angry when she came back from the school and told me they wanted her to take it down from her personal profile. We should be allowed to share our daughter’s experience with other people if we want to.”

A spokesman for Rhondda Cynon Taf Council said its schools do not want to spoil parents’ enjoyment of special occasions such as Christmas concerts but there are occasions when – particularly during an age of widespread social media – that the protection of children is necessary.

He said: “Schools should receive the written permission of all of their parents to allow filming or photography of their children in school.

“If just one parent or carer objects to group photography, then the headteacher does not allow it to happen. At Ynysboeth Primary School a significant number of parents or carers specifically requested that their children’s images do not appear on social media.

“The headteacher made it clear to the audience that photography was allowed, but not for distribution on social media. Unfortunately a minority ignored those wishes and published them anyway.

“There are children in our schools who are protected by means of court orders and under no circumstances can the identity or location of these children be revealed. To do so could expose them to unacceptable risk.”

He added: “The local authority and schools work closely with adoptive and foster carers to ensure the well-being and safeguarding of their children and that is why headteachers may find it necessary to ban photography or film in such an event. This is a decision we fully support for the benefit of the child/children in question.”

Source: Wales Online

Audio accompanyment (mp3) by Tom Little.

sequential