It’s what the title says, i don’t want to be posted on fricking instagram and my school didn’t ask for anyone’s consent. It’s not just one, it’s severeal. How can i make instagram remove them? Thank you for your help
edit 1: thanks for the heads up, especially for the ones who seem truly interested to help me in this matter. So what i did till now is to send an email to my school collaborator (which is a scholastic figure who is responsible for the management of the school in general) requesting the deletion of the images depicting myself.
This is the complete request translated in english: Hi, I saw that recently several photos have been posted by the school account on instagram that depict me. I kindly request the removal of the aforementioned photos, since I have not given consent (or if given, withdraw such consent) to the publication of my image online on accounts not controlled and managed by me. I explicitly ask you to avoid “censoring” my image, but to commit to deleting the photos in which I am present, in order to avoid any kind of retaliation against me. Please let me know if there is anything else I should do to complete this process, thanks for your cooperation.
I’ve also tried to let instagram delete these images through this link but i don’t know if it was successful or not because i gave them an email as contact info but i didn’t receive anything yet.
I’ll let you know how this ends Update: Today, during class hours, I was summoned by the principal to their office. They wanted to discuss with me the content of that email, specifically they asked me directly severeal things. They asked me if i was in any kind of “danger”, since i wrote, in their opinion, a sentence that could be interpreted as a sort of announcement of possible danger on my side. They were referring to this sentence contained in the email: “…in order to avoid any kind of retaliation against me.”. I replied to them that i was merely referring to possible social judgment that could come from my classmates and/or erasmus participants after seeing my face censored or any photo deleted on any school social account.
They asked me the reason why i wanted those photos to be deleted, to which i replied that i didn’t enjoy the idea of having my likeness shown in social accounts that i don’t own and don’t have access to (they even posted me on facebook by the way).
So, that mocking removed of a principal, replied to me saying that apparently my dad did sign the privacy waiver back when he enrolled me to my school so basically i have no right to request the deletion of the photos and neither having my face censored because, since i’m a minor, my dad signed it. I then asked them if it was possible to withdraw such consent, and they replied that it was possible but my parents are in charge of it, not me. They then warned me about having called my parents asking, prior to our meeting, if they remember signing the waiver, to which they replied “yes” (but of course when i advancely asked them if they remember signing anything, they said idk/i don’t remember) but not only that, they even said that my parents weren’t willing to withdraw any consent regarding my image usage nor any privacy related clauses (thanks mom, thanks dad, as always).
Set apart the mockings about how this request of mine was only a fixation and that there could not be any kind of social retaliation against me because students won’t give a damn about why my face was censored (which is a good things, except that it’s not how it works here) and they instead focus on studying (biggest lie i’ve eve heard, my school sucks ass when it comes to having committed students, no coincidence that i was the only one able to speak english among the erasmus participants) and that i should do it too instead of thinking about these things… set apart that, since i was exhausted i said fine, i’ll be waiting till i’m 18 years old and then you’ll remove those images. They basically said (NUH UH) that they’re not going to delete any photo since the purpose of erasmuses, as a European initiative, is to disseminate, which means publicize this initiative and that the best they can do is to “censor” my face. I replied to them that it was their choice, and not this kind of erasmus purpose, to not commit deleting the images in which i was present. I said whatever, as long as my face is censored, i can sleep well at night but they said that they are gonna censor me as the law requires… great, what does it mean? It means that they’re just gonna be putting a black bar to cover my eyes. Oh that’s awesome, haha facebook, got you there, i’m unrecognizable now!
So what can i do now? My last resorts are either to convince my parents to withdraw such consent or to continue emailing instagram about deleting the photos in which my face is shown. Instagram in the end did respond to my request but, they were asking me the exact position and description of me in the photo, so that they can verify that i am indeed in that photo (how exactly? I don’t know since i could be faking it). Isn’t that like telling facebook who i am , which is exactly the contrary to the purpose of my request? What are your opinions about this?
Look at your school’s policy manual. There’s likely a policy regarding what they can and cannot do with images of students. Every school I’ve worked for has some kind of policy around this. In all of them I’ve read you can opt out of photos being published, but there’s usually a caveat that by participating in any school sanctioned event, participation is considered consent to be shown in photos and video of the event.
This is pretty hostile. “If you attend any school events then we own your image”? The fuck?
As someone who had done photography for school events, thie policy exists because I don’t know one kid from another, and when I have dozens of shots with 400 kids in them, some are going to slip through the cracks when photos are posted online.
You could also just not post those photos online?
Or if you must make such a careleess decision, blur out evey childs face
Or maybe make free, optional events optional and ask that parents that have their kids participating with the waiver.
If it’s that important to keep your kids out of any photos, they shouldn’t be attending the events in the first place. Even if ai don’t post pictures online, SOMEBODY will.
I’ve done photography for events in very sensitive situations, including an event at a boarding school for abused children facility in a secret location where the identities of children are kept secret so their abusive parents can’t find them. In that case I framed shots to not include areas where the kids were located, cut the video recordings any time a kid went up on stage for any of the presentation, I cut any audio where any child’s voice was noticeable among the crowd or any times a name was heard. With weeks of proper planning it can be done.
And the next day there were hundreds of pictures all over Facebook b cause everybody has a camera a in their pocket and I can’t control for that.
Hard agree.
I mean, publics held functions usually mean to expected right to privacy, at least in the USA. No different than filming anything else in public.
I still would tell OP to check their handbook, and from there go the route of asking staff in the office if they can remove them.
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That’s straight-up extortion and theft.
Out of curiosity, is it just rights to use or ownership rights? Not saying the former is good, but it’s still better than the latter.
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In many cases, its a CYA policy just so they don’t have to ask permission for every single image. Hopefully they’re the respectful type that will either remove or blur the student upon request.
Yes, schools are businesses these days. Businesses don’t want to actually do effort to get consent.
They also don’t want to be sued, so yes, this is the lowest effort way to limit their liability.
In schools, they normally have parents fill out a form giving consent to use a student’s picture. There should be a way to revoke that consent.
It’s opt-out in a lot of districts now
Which country are you talking about? Us federal law required consent to opt-in. As far as I know, FERPA hasn’t received an update concerning that.
The US - with obvious exceptions, photos of students can be designated by a district as directory information (which many do, hence opt outs being common)
That’s interesting, I didn’t realize that a photograph counted as part of the directory information. I figured that was why photos are included in the list of items on the parent consent forms sent out every year.
It was my understanding (from admin, teacher professional orgs, and teacher unions) that pictures on websites and social media need consent to be posted. So we were told that any student without a consent form had to be edited out or blurred on any picture posted anywhere.
I’m from italy, i don’t think these kind of things exist in italian schools. At least i never saw them myself
You may be able to use GDPR to get them removed, but it may be easier just to get the school to take them down.
Pretty sure it’s mandated by the EU