Bobbie;
You're right to be concerned! Let me share a little story from the Zoo at
the Smithsonian.
Some years ago, so one of their staff told me, they bought several Polaroid
cameras and gave them to summer help with instructions to offer souvenir
photos to visitors at a buck a shot or something similar. The visitors
really liked the idea. NOT SO some guy who was there with someone else's
wife and feared they might be in the background of one of the photos. Holy
hell was raised and that was the end of THAT project!
I think it is a VERY good idea to have very visible signage to advise the
visitors ANY time you take photos of them, for whatever reason. They need to
know: (a) they may be photographed and that (b) the uses to which the
institution plans to put the images produced, advertising being one of them.
If you intend to take close-ups featuring one or a small number of persons,
you'd better have a stack of releases handy and it should be the parents who
give the consent for children under the legal age of consent in your
jurisdiction..
While this might seem a tad paranoid, we do, unfortunately, live in an age
where litigation is rapidly replacing baseball as the sport of millions.
Harry
"A little rule, a little sway,
A sunbeam in a winter's day,
Is all the proud and mighty have
Between the cradle and the grave."
-John Dyer (1700?-1758)
Harry Needham, M.A., CFE, etc.
President
Harry Needham Consulting Services Inc.
Consulting, research & training services for heritage institutions - and
others!
74 Abbeyhill Drive
Kanata, Ontario K2L 1H1
Canada
email: [log in to unmask]
(Voice) +1.613.831-1068
(Fax) +1.613.831-9412
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bobbie" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2001 10:06 AM
Subject: people photos on web
> I would like to know if other museums have policies about posting pictures
> of visitors on their web sites, particularly pictures of children. My
museum
> does not have a sign anywhere telling people that they may be photographed
> while in the museum and that those photographs may end up in the quarterly
> museum newsletter or on the web site. In the case I am thinking of, we do
> not know who the children are so of course we have no signed releases from
> parents or guardians. As you can probably tell, I am uncomfortable with
> plastering some child's picture on the web without parental knowledge or
> approval. Also, are there any legal considerations here?
>
> Thanks for your help.
> Bobbie Scott
>
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