The Data Protection Commission this week addressed the standing issue of taking visual images at school activities by issuing a set of guidelines that define good practice to be adopted in schools.

The issue has proved something of a bone of contention since the introduction of the Data Protection Act, with some schools prohibiting parents, much to their disappointment, from taking photographs or videos of their children during school activities such as prize days.

The guidelines, the first in a series addressing such topics, were drawn up by the Commission in conjunction with a committee of representatives from state, independent and church schools, the Education Division and the Office of the Prime Minister. They cover the taking of visual images for personal use, official school use and for journalistic purposes.

The guidelines stipulate that the Data Protection Act does not prohibit the taking of visual images for personal use and that, as such, schools may adopt their own policies in this regard.

When the practice is permitted, however, parents and others in attendance must be informed that such images are only allowed for personal purposes. All in attendance must be informed either through a circular or invitation letter to the event, or by way of a verbal announcement immediately before the activity.

Any person taking such images will be held responsible for any unlawful processing or misuse.

Images taken for school administrative and record purposes, meanwhile, should not require consent, while those taken for communication purposes – such as printed publications, notice boards, media and school websites – will require the consent of the subject.

The Commission deems it good practice for a school to develop a consent form for the processing of images for communication purposes that differentiate between the types of media in which the images would be displayed so that parents would be able to consent to certain media while objecting to others.

Although such consent need not be sought on an annual basis, it was established that good practice would be to renew consent at stages where a student reaches a new educational level namely kindergarten, primary, secondary and post secondary levels.

Visual images, whether taken by the school’s staff or a hired photographer, can be retained for a period of up to three years, or a shorter period to be established by individual schools. Where such images form part of the school’s historical record, the time frame for retention will be of an indefinite period.

When images are taken for journalistic purposes, the school is not considered as the data controller and the onus of processing and the seeking of consent lies with the journalist covering the event.