Photography Policy

February 2023

The Barn welcomes audiences of all ages, including children and families as part of its activities.

The purpose of this policy is to:

· Protect an individual’s personal data (personal data meaning data which relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data, which includes photography and video.)

· Protect children and young people who take part in events and activities at the Barn, specifically those where photographs and videos may be taken

· Set out the overarching principles that guide our approach to photographs/videos being taken during our events and activities

· To ensure that we operate in line with our values and within the law when creating, using and sharing images

Protect an individual’s personal data

We display clear signage around the venue at all times which states:

“Photographs taken during this event may be used in the Barn's marketing (print and online).

If you do not wish to appear in any photographs, please make a member of staff aware. Thank you.”

Taking and retaining photographs of people is considered personal data under the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018, which means the data protection principles apply. We therefore have a responsibility to protect an individual’s personal data, which includes a photograph or video in which they can be clearly identified.

We must therefore obtain consent from anyone who appears in a photograph or video that will be used by the organisation, this can be through clear signage offering the right to opt out of appearing in any photographs. It is however important that we obtain ‘proper’ consent for photos or videos of children or young people.

Photos or videos that we take for use by the organisation must not be shared within any third-party organisations without further consent from the individual.

In reality, a lot of people might not want their photo stored or shared by someone else, especially if it is an organisation. This could simply be because of the fear of a bad photo or it may be for much more serious reasons such as privacy or legal concerns.

Protect children and young people

In regard to children and young people, we have a responsibility to promote their welfare and to ensure we take and use photographs and videos of children safely.

The sharing of photographs and films of our events and activities can help us celebrate the successes and achievements of our children and young people, provide a record of our activities and raise awareness of our organisation. However, children, their parents and carers have a right to decide whether their images are taken and how these may be used.

Therefore, during events and activities specific to children and young people, we will:

· Always ask for written consent from a child and their parents or carers before taking and using a child’s image

· Ensure the consent form explains what the images will be used for

· Advise that if a child or their parent or carers withdraw consent for an image to be shared, it may not be possible to delete images that have already been shared or published

· Never publishing personal information about individual children and disguising any identifying information (for example the name of their school or a school uniform with a logo)

· Making sure children, their parents and carers understand how images of children will be securely stored and for how long

· Avoid full face shots of children

Overarching Principles

If we hire a photographer for one of our events, we will seek to keep individuals, children and young people safe by providing the photographer with a clear brief about our consent procedures outlined above.

If consent to take photographs is not given, we will respect their wishes. We will never exclude an individual from an event or activity because we do not have consent to take their photograph.