Is it wrong for teachers to post images of the children they teach on their personal Instagram or Facebook profiles? We were asked this question by a journalist last month.

The reporter had seen videos posted by teachers of children doing activities like singing and dancing. She asked whether schools should remind their teachers that they shouldn’t be using their personal accounts to post images of children from their place of work. How could it be an ethically and professionally okay thing for an educator to do?

She wondered if young teachers had grown up with Instagram and were so used to posting content of their lives online that they might not be conscious of the boundaries between professional and personal sharing.

Institutional use

While most schools have embraced social media as method of reaching and engaging with students, they usually do this through their institutional social media channels. They should have policies that explain how they use they use these channels to, for example, promote student achievement and the school’s news and activities. Good communication and having the consent of the parents or guardians are key if a school is going to post images of children online.

The school’s policy should also set out its expectations of teachers and other staff. It needs to explain the importance of keeping personal and professional lives separate. Teachers will already be aware of this in their daily work lives – but the same safeguard needs to apply in their online lives. A big risk of using social media is how easy it is to blur the boundary between an individual’s professional and private identity.

Personal use

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards believes teachers should not be posting images of children on personal social media accounts because the images could expose children to wider audiences than parents would like. You can read his comments here.

Our advice for school principals and teachers is to take a commonsense and responsible approach to protecting children online – and that means taking a protective line on their images. Children can be easily identified if they live in a small community and if they are pictured in their school uniforms or in school grounds. And when they are older, they may not want these images online.

A quick online search revealed that some schools have comprehensive social media policies for teachers and students. St Patrick’s College in Wellington, as one example, advises its staff to keep their private and professional use of social media separate.

Ireland’s Teaching Council in its Draft Guidelines for Registered Teachers about the Use of Social Media advises teachers before they post anything to ask themselves: “Might what I’m posting reflect poorly on me, my employer or my profession?”

While there are no profession-wide blanket rules in New Zealand when it comes to using social media, teachers are expected to uphold a code of professional responsibility. This teaching code, which was established by the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand, sets out standards for ethical behaviour. There’s a requirement that teachers work in the best interests of learners by engaging in ethical and professional relationships that respect boundaries. A supporting document to the code, Examples in Practice, provides practical guidance and support for teachers to reflect on before posting anything involving learners.

The right policies

To recap, make sure your school has an up-to-date social media policy. This should include seeking consent from parents or guardians when wanting to use a child’s image on a school’s website or social media, an avenue for families to opt out from having their children’s images used online and clear guidance to teachers to avoid using their students’ images on personal social media accounts.

We have further reading on this and other school-related topics, including:

• Can I post photos or video of my students on my Instagram?
  
• Can a school publish a child’s information?
  
• Are schools allowed to publish my child’s information?
  
• Can a school put parent details in a school directory?
  

There’s also this blog post - Back to school FAQs.

Coming soon, we’ll also have a new schools e-learning module for teachers, principals and support staff.

Image credit: Instagram logo by Jose Moutinho (Flickr).

children, education, social media