Children's Photos and Names on a Camp or Daycare Site

The photos that sell a camp

Nothing shows what a camp, daycare or club is like better than photos of children in the middle of it: a craft table, a relay race, a group by a lake.

Parents choosing a summer camp look at those photos closely. They want to see happy children, real staff and a safe place.

The same photos are of other people's children. Each needs a parent's permission, and some need more care than a quick post at the end of the day allows.

With registrations under way and camps about to start, this is the month to settle how photos are taken, chosen and published. Treat what follows as practical guidance rather than legal advice.

What can go wrong

• A child whose parent said no appears in a group photo.
• Full names in captions make a child easy to find.
• Live posts say where the group is right now.
• Hidden location data travels inside photos taken on phones.
• Staff phones keep camp photos on personal accounts.
• A withdrawal request nobody can act on, because the photos are everywhere.

The first carries the highest stakes. Some parents decline for serious reasons they need not explain, and one photo on a public page is exactly what they asked you to prevent.

Written permission for each use

Ask for permission in writing at registration, in its own section of the form rather than buried in the general terms.

Be specific about where photos may appear, such as the website, Facebook, Instagram and printed brochures, with a separate yes or no for each, since many parents agree to one and not another.

Say how long photos may be used, and that saying no will not affect the child's place. Then make sure it really does not.

Privacy law treats a photo of an identifiable person as personal information, and for children the permission comes from a parent or guardian and should be as specific as the uses you have in mind.

Names, places and times

Leave names out of everything public: captions, file names and image descriptions. A first name and a face, with the camp's location, is enough to find a child.

Watch for names inside the photo itself: name tags, labelled backpacks, shirts with names on the back.

Post after the event, not during it. A post saying the group is at the beach until three tells anyone where those children will be.

Switch off location tagging on the phones and accounts used for camp photos. A photo taken on a phone can carry its location hidden inside the file, and an image uploaded straight to a website may keep it.

Choosing which photos to use

The best camp photos are often not portraits. Hands at a craft table, a group seen from behind on a trail, a wide shot of a game: all show the experience without singling out one child.

Avoid anything a child might be embarrassed by later: swimwear, tears, a fall, or a moment they would rather have kept to themselves.

Before a group photo goes anywhere, check every face in it against the list of children whose parents said no.

A worked example

A fencing club that rents a school gym in the evenings runs week-long summer camps for children aged eight to fourteen.

Last summer a parent asked for her son's photos to be removed, and the club found them in more places than expected: the gallery, three Facebook albums, a printed flyer and the home page slideshow.

Several captions gave full names, some image files were named after the children, and in a few photos surnames were printed across the backs of their jackets, as is common in competitive fencing.

The mechanism was a registration form with one broad question, may we use photos of your child, and no list anyone could check before posting.

This year's form asks separately about the website, social media and print. Coaches carry a list of children not to photograph, captions name no one, and files are renamed before upload.

Most action shots are now taken with masks on, which suits the sport: a fencer in a mask is anonymous, and the photos still show what the camp is about.

Staff phones and personal accounts

Most camp photos are taken on staff phones, where they stay, sometimes ending up on a staff member's own Instagram.

Set the rule before the season: photos are taken for the camp, passed to one person who chooses and posts them, and deleted from personal phones afterwards. Staff do not post camp photos on their own accounts.

A camp-owned phone or tablet for photos makes that rule much easier to follow.

When a parent withdraws

Parents can change their minds, and the process for that should exist before anyone asks.

Keep approved photos in one folder with a note of where each has been published, so a withdrawal means checking one list rather than searching three platforms.

Remove the photos from the website and social pages promptly, and confirm to the parent in writing when it is done.

Be honest on the form about limits: a printed brochure cannot be recalled, and a photo shared by others is out of your hands.

Photos parents take

At open houses, recitals and end-of-camp shows, parents take photos too, and other children appear in them.

You cannot control those photos, but you can ask. A line in the parent handbook and a word before the show, asking parents to post only their own child, sets a reasonable expectation.

The counter-case

Some organisations choose not to show children's faces at all, using photos of spaces, equipment, staff, and activities seen from behind. That is a sound choice, especially for daycares with very young children.

Others work with teenagers who have views of their own, and asking them as well as their parents is good practice.

A club whose site shows only the building and the schedule has less to manage, though parents see less of what they want.

Where children's photos are used, though, the advice holds: written permission for each use, no names or locations, and a way to remove photos quickly.

Before camp starts

1. Add specific photo questions to registration.
2. Make a no-photo list for staff.
3. Remove names from captions and file names.
4. Switch off location tagging on camp phones.
5. Post after events, never during them.
6. Keep approved photos in one folder.
7. Write down the withdrawal process now.

Step two is the one that prevents the worst outcome. Every other step tidies up after a photo is taken; the list stops the wrong photo being taken or posted in the first place.

The same record-keeping, applied to stock photos, is covered in photos from a previous web designer's stock licence.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.