Hi,
At our scholastic events, I have been taking pictures of award winners, captioning them and submitting them for our state web site. It has been positively received by parents. At our annual meeting yesterday, it was pointed out that there may be some privacy issues involved. I am writing in hopes of being pointed to some guidelines.
Thanks
Hank Anzis
Iowa State Chess Association Scholastic Director
I cannot give you legal guidelines, but for kid safety and privacy reasons my rule-of-thumb has been to not post full names in photo captions on a club web site. We either put pictures up without names in the captions (“fifth grade winning team”), or put them up with first names only (“Joe, Sue, Bobby and Fred, our winning fifth grade team at the state championship.”)
Yes, the parents appreciate pictures, and since our site is a club site, everyone already knows who the kids are. 
Bear in mind that on MSA one can get player name, grade and state of residence, but not their school or their picture. I begin to worry on the kids’ behalf when complete information is posted in one place: full name, school, grade, town, and photo.
I imagine some parents may not want pictures of their children to appear at all. This probably explains why I have had to sign photo releases for each of my children’s schools and camps for the last six years. That’s probably more hassle than you want.
If you err on the side of caution with the caption information, you’ll be less likely to get parents who won’t allow their children’s photos to be posted to the site.
I have no guidelines to offer but…
I use a release statement that says “Permission is hereby granted to publish pictures and the name of this player on the Evansville Scholastic Chess Club Web site and in newspaper articles.” as a registration option for players who sign up to play in our tournaments. It may be inadequate, but it does, at least, give me an idea of which parents DO NOT want their child’s picture put on the web.
I’d be careful with this, our state organization used a child’s photo without the parent’s permissions and got a stern warning. Though this was an adult organization.
I am sorry I should be more clear: On our registration page there is a drop down option for yes or no before that statement. On the onsite registration sheet of paper there is a check off box. That way their indication is made before the tournament even begins.
A stern warning from whom? The parent? On what grounds? In what context was the picture used? How was this resolved?
If I got a stern warning from a parent for putting his/her child’s picture on an organizational web site for something the child was participating in, I would say, “Sorry, if you don’t want your child’s picture on the organization web site, we’ll take it down.” Then I’d take it down. Problem solved, and pretty easily. In the meantime, the rest of the pictures get to stay up, and the rest of the parents probably get a kick out of seeing their kids on the site.
Now, if you were using the kid’s picture to promote your new chess tutoring company, that would be another thing entirely.
The child’s picture was used on a printed magazine, without the parent’s permission.
I don’t remember what exactly was said, but the parent was correct. The child was well under 8 years old. So at that point, there wasn’t much we could do about it.
Hi,
Thanks for taking the time to share your ideas with me. I will take the step of asking parents to sign a permission slip for the use of the pictures on our website and state magazine.
Hank
Newspapers publish pictures of kids all the time without parental consent. Most of the time this is for newsworthy events, including human interest stories. TV stations will run stories filmed at schools without the parents consent, too. (In one case, our son informed us at about 5 minutes to 6 that he would be on the 6PM news that day, but he didn’t know which station!)
But having a consent form is always a good idea.
I have been involved in several projects where children were being filmed for a documentary. Much of the footage probably won’t be used since they have done 100s of hours of filming for what will probably be a 90 minute film. The production company has been meticulous in getting releases from the parents of the children filmed, and release from anyone else that may possibly end out in the film. They get from me the hard copy of round by round pairings so that they know exactly who they filmed where.
One documentary that never made it off the ground entailed a scene with my teaching a class at a private school. One child’s parent had not signed the release, so the film crew made sure that he was in the back of the group, and not visible during shots of the group answering questions. One other parent chose not to have her child come to chess club on the day they filmed.
Our website has many pictures of participants in our tournaments, and we ask parents to specify whether we have their permission to put their child’s picture on the website. There have been concerns over children’s pictures being made public in sistuations where there has been custody issues.
I directed an unrated Library event recently. The Library wanted to publish pictures of the prize winners in their newsletter.
The Librarian obtained signed releases from parents of all winners before taking the pictures. I was mildly inconvenienced because they delayed the awards ceremony until the releases were all in hand.
Pitfall: If the kid’s first name is something like Alizhurimova, chances are a lot of people will know (or be able to find out) exactly who is being talked about. 
Bill Smythe
“Just call me Al.”
But seriously, you’re right: a certain amount of risk is involved whenever a kid’s picture is shown with a name. I’m willing to accept that risk, and there are very identifiable pictures of my chess-playing child out there on the internet. Others may not be willing to accept any risk. I say, let 'em opt out if they want.