THINK Before You Take a Photo
Take photography as a very common example. A well-meaning tourist visits a local community and sees the local children walking around, happily waving, smiling, and connecting with the curious foreigner. The tourist wants to take a photo to share on Facebook. Sadly, in today’s interconnected digital world, those photos, whether private or not, can give predators an opportunity to learn the location of these children. Information we think might be safe to share on online platforms is simply not.
Do tourists ask for permission from parents to take photos of their children? I often wonder how I would feel if a stranger took pictures of my own children, nieces, nephews, or friends’ kids. Honestly, I’m not comfortable with it at all.
Before taking a photo of a child, pause for a moment. Ask yourself whether it’s truly necessary and what purpose that photo will serve.
If you still feel the need to capture the image, consider first speaking with the child’s guardian to ask for permission. However, keep in mind that the guardian may not actually ask the child if they want to be photographed, and even if they do, the child might feel unable to say ‘no’. We don’t need to put them in that situation; we could avoid it altogether and store the memory of our trip deep in our minds and hearts. If we at Discova deem it absolutely necessary to take photos for our own Eileen Yee Educational Fund, for example, we don’t share the real names of students. We have documented permission from their guardians, and we don’t expose their faces with close-up images.
