The Safe Use of Images

While supporting schools in the development of their web sites the question is often asked "Is this image OK for use on our school web site?". What is often wanted is a "yes" or "no" answer, however there are a number of factors which must be considered before any attempt can be made at answering such a question.

Before the image itself is considered, a number of other questions need to be asked:

• Has the school notified its wider community about the fact that it is intending to have a web site and sent a letter to parents & carers notifying them of this and giving them the opportunity to request that images of their child are nor included?
• If this has been done, are staff who are using a digital camera during school activities aware of the list of pupils who may not be included in
• Are staff aware of the guidelines for the safe use of images as detailed on the main HGfL safety pages?

The Suitability of Images for a School Web Site

Digital Manipulation ("Photoshopping")

Once images have been captured digitally (normally with a digital camera or scanner) it is possible to manipulate them in a way which can change their meaning or context. This is sometimes known as "Photoshopping" (after the Adobe Photoshop software which is often used to perform such image manipulation). The example on the right takes a digital image of Elvis Presley and another digital image of the Mona Lisa and superimposes the former on the latter to give the impression of a genuine image.

In the context of school web sites, the potential for digital manipulation of any image depends on the amount of information contained within that image. Here is an example:

The first image of the three is high quality - i.e. the resolution and detail are such that the image could be reused with another face in place of the existing one. The second and third images are of lower resolution - it would be much more difficult to construct a 'faked' image using these images - this would be practically impossible with the third one.

The many faces of 007 superimposed on Mount Rushmore

If images on a school web site have an unnecessarily high level of detail then it is possible for such images to be re-used in ways which might be inappropriate - a photograph of a child's body or head could be superimposed upon another body or scene which might be extremely inappropriate and this could put the child at risk. The potential for this is not confined to images of children - images of staff could be similarly manipulated by those wishing to embarrass or harass them.

The resolution of an image is important to consider when publishing images on a school's web site, especially if those images have been taken using a digital camera, which tends to produce images of very high resolution - such images need resizing to a smaller size before they can be safely used - this process will also make pages faster to download.

The Content of an Image

Groups or Individuals?

On school web sites we would recommend that individual photographs of easily identifiable children are never used - partially because the letter which a school may have sent to parents and carers states that this will never happen and also because we would advise that it is unnecessary to illustrate any aspect of the school with individual photographs of children, as these images can often be manipulated (see above) or used to identify individuals.

In general we would recommend that group photographs are used. However, the concept of a 'group photograph' is difficult to define. All of the following are 'group photographs', whether they should be included on a school web site may be down to personal discretion.

«- Least Recommended		Most Recommended -»

Given the choice of the photographs above, we would recommend that the one on the right was used and that if you have a choice of photographs, always use those with as many individuals in as possible.

Another issue with group photographs is: what to do if one of the children in the photograph cannot be included on the school web site, for example if parental permission being withdrawn or the child is excluded. If the child concerned is in the centre of the photograph, then digitally 'removing' that child may render the photograph unusable - if the child is on the edge of the image then it may be possible to 'crop' the image. » See an example on our Sample Images page.

Acceptable Individual or Small Group Photographs

• Photographs where the children are not facing the camera
• Photographs where something such as a mask obscures the child's face (see right)
• Photographs where the individuals are too small to be identified - note that such images are often so small as to be of no use! 

Individuals' Appearance and Dress

Please be aware of what individual children are wearing in photographs. The girls in Year 4 doing gymnastics in the school hall may be an accurate reflection of PE in your school, but it may not be the most appropriate image to display on your web site.

Information about the school

• where the ICT suite is (and hence all of the computers are)
• where the changing rooms / toilets are
• where any admin offices are (which may contain PCs, printers, fax machines etc.)

Our advice would be that it is a bad idea to publish such information on a school web site. If you were to publish this information in conjunction with timetable information then a visitor to your web site might be able to surmise when certain rooms were occupied or empty. Please see the information on our Sample Images page for examples.

Samples

What is contained within an image is also very important - and how that image was taken can also affect how 'safe' it might be. We have prepared a number of examples of images which you might want to place on your school web site, and have attempted to highlight some of the issues which might be associated with the use of each image.

Please note that this page contains some large images and may take a while to download, so please be patient!

• View sample images