Can a library, when organising library lessons attended by children, take photos and publish them on its website to promote its activities?
ANSWER
When publishing photos of children on a library website, it is advisable to obtain consent from parents or legal guardians. Processing of personal data in the form of an identifiable person's image for a specific purpose may, as a rule, take place after the data controller obtains consent under Article 6(1)(a) GDPR.
- Dissemination of an image requires the consent of the person depicted. In the absence of an express objection, consent is not required if the person received agreed remuneration for posing.
- Dissemination of an image does not require consent for:
- a widely known person, if the image was taken in connection with the performance of public functions, in particular political, social or professional functions;
- a person who constitutes only a detail of a whole, such as an assembly, landscape or public event.
It is therefore advisable to prepare consent wording and provide it to directors or carers at the nursery school so that such consents are collected before the children attend the scheduled meeting.
If, on the other hand, children's images were to constitute only a detail of the event shown in the photos (which may be considered in the category of a public event), so that removing a particular child's image from the photo would not change the subject or character of the photo, dissemination of the image would not require consent. The GDPR legal basis would then be Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, i.e. the controller's legitimate interest in promoting the library's activities.
