Hi Tania,
Yes, Pixevity offers scope to take school event photography out of the public domain so that parents can view images of their child only or have the option to agree to terms and conditions of use to view relevant school events by album. As we’ve only just adopted Pixevity, we’re utilising it purely for storage, management and identification for photo consent permissions at this stage with a view to expand on that as the landscape evolves.
We communicated the rising risk of deep fakes in a letter from the Principal, which also mentioned that our College would be taking steps to minimise this through the choice of photos shared (adjustment of resolution, preference for group activity shots and side profiles, avoidance of multiple portrait shots of the same individual etc). The letter advised that our consent form had been updated and reminded them that they had the option to indicate preference for how their child’s image was shared (internally and externally). As part of our enrolment process, the standard use of student images for administrative purposes is agreed to. This includes internal displays and also the print based College yearbook.
This was followed by a STUDENT MEDIA CONSENT & DIGITAL PUBLICATION AUTHORISATION form (we used PAM), which was unavoidably lengthy but very clear as it set out:
1. How images are used (platforms)
2. Risks that parents should be aware of (AI digital manipulation, third party misuse, digital footprints)
3. Steps taken by the College to mitigate risks
4. Utilisation of Pixevity
Consent checkboxes included:
1. I’ve read and understood the content
2. Media consent granted/declined
3. College use of Pixevity granted/declined
All of the above included direct reference and links to our MACS Privacy Collection Notices (updated to include Media Mgt & Facial Recognition Technology).
We had a good response from parents and while the list of students that needs to be managed manually has grown (those that do not want their child’s photo shared publicly and do not want us to use Pixevity to help us to identify them in school photography), parents are better informed about the risks and processes as well as their options.