Using Mobile Phones For Photos and Obs

[Sarah389]

I have recently noticed more educators using mobile phones at my centre to take photos of children for obs and daily posts (despite having ipads in each room for this very use). I am wondering how to approach this issue with my director as she too uses her phone for this reason. We have children in the Family and Community Services System and children that are no longer in the care of their parents so educators having photos of those children on their personal phones is a breach of privacy and confidentiality right?

Also our policies do not state the use of personal mobile phones for photo taking and storage.

[Butterflyblue]

Personal mobile phones shouldn’t really be used by educators if there is another device for taking pictures for documentation purposes.
The reasons for this, on top of what you mentioned are a whole heap of potential problems including:

*is the phone password protected and safe guarded by anti-virus or something similar for extra security
*who has access to the educators phone, can the educator guarantee their phones content (including pictures of children) are safe if they have it
*are the parents aware that photos are taken on educators personal devices, is there anything in the parent contract which explains by whom and how photographs and videos of children are taken, stored and used
*what happens after photos are taken - how are they stored exactly- are they transferred to a company device (ipad, printer, usb etc) to be printed and/or digitally saved and then deleted from the educators phone immediately – is the educator required to do paperwork remotely, do they need these images?


Personal devices should only be used if there is a policy stating how management will ensure privacy is protected and exact procedure including parental and child permission etc. if there isn't one, your within your rights to ask for clarification. I would assume if it isn't mentioned that is because it isn't allowed.
Are there any policies or procedures that talk about photos and videos?

If there is an ipad for photo taking, I assume educators are using phones out of convenience, if there’s only the one tablet and they have to wait for it.
You mentioned photo taking and storage and that’s the key here- does the company allow their employees to take photos with their personal devices for work and if yes then what is the procedure regarding storing the photos – i.e. should they be transferred to a company device ASAP and permanently deleted?

what do educators do with photos usually?

[Lorina]

Educators should not be taking photos of children on their phones without the prior consent of parents/guardian. Parents sign a form typically at the beginning of the year in regards to permission of taking photos for documentation purposes, events etc. however that's for the purpose of the service. As for taking photos of children on a personal phone even though it is for documentation purpose, it doesn't guarantee that the Educator will delete the images once they have been used etc.

There is nothing in the Regulations in regards to this issue, however ethically and morally it is not right... or parents should at least be notified and give their consent.

,
Lorina

[Lorina]

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Plus argument on using personal phone is poor one when 90% of educators have to do their work at home whicj is wrong but photos be were ? On their laptop their what as work ipads can not go home so centers need to fix

[Lorina]

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There should be a policy that educators are NOT permitted to use personal phones !
My staff get a warning if they use personal mobile to photograph children !

[Lorina]

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Well im a FDC educator i use my phone for work upload onto kinderloop. Use in my observations
Time wise phone fits in pocket ipad or tables don't.

I have my hands and arm free to be their with the children prevent falls etc.

Ipad in my hand would leave me umable to have hands free.

Running for an ipad id miss what i wanted to capture .

I deleted the photes when finished off my phone however delete is usually monthly .

As i may see someelse and old photo be before and new photo now showing evidence of learning.

So if centers want no phones of educators use give them a work phone each for this purpose.

[Lorina]

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We are not allowed to

At the company I work for. They have an app we are to use. Do you have a policy?

[Lorina]

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Does your centre hold staff meetings? Add it to the agenda and bring up the points and discuss it there. Or ask what the policy is in place in regards to this.

[Lorina]

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I still remember back in the old days we used to use the Camera ,(Yes a real one with memory card) to take photos and transfer the photos to computer to do the day story or portfolio. If the staff really want to use a smartphone to take photos, it should be the company's phone, not personal phone. I don't like the bulky ipad, there are alternative options, buy a smaller tablet (eg: Samsung ), half size of the ipad, easy to hold in hands, photos quality is fine. At the end of the day we are not professional photographers, we just need some true photos to show the every day activities,during special events the supervisor can come in the room with the company phone to take beautiful photos for business use( eg: to promo the centre on FB), Or, hire a professional photographer . Staff using excuses to use their personal phone in the room, not just taking photos but personally reasons (checking personal messages /FB/ or even playing their games on their phone ) it's ridiculous ,these should not be allowed at all.

[Lorina]

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We had this issue, addressed it at a staff meeting, pulled out the policy, found out the reason educators preferred there phones, the iPads we use will be updated to provide better picture quality, in the meantime no personal phones to be used at the service to take photos of children, issue solved, moving forward

[Lorina]

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The photos go up on story park and are available for absolutely everyone to screenshot anyway.

[Lorina]

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We are not allowed personal mobile phones while on shift. Service/s have mobile phones plus ipads for photos/documentation.

[Lorina]

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Our centre policy says no use of phones

Our centre provides iPads for each room

So yeah nothing further to say really

[Lorina]

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Unfortunately, at the end of the day, we've found phones take much better quality photos than cameras (unless super expensive/ professional ones), ipads and ipods. We've tried it all!
We use the ipads for everyday use, and I am planning to buy a centre phone, purely for the photo quality at special events etc.

In the meantime, for special events, we are taking photos on one person's personal phone (we designate one person to be "paparazzi"), and after downloading them for Storypark or Facebook, get another staff member to witness us deleting them from our phone afterwards. (Just a temporary measure).

[Lorina]

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Could it be something that could perhaps be reflected on.. our centre used to have what we called devices- a Samsung sized phone with internet, few work related apps and a camera, each room had 2.. i along with many other educators found this so much easier, less intrusive to children (who likes a big iPad in there face when your busy, it's very distracting), something that was in your pocket and easy to retrieve for an in the moment photograph.. it's annoying to carry around an iPad all day or you put it down, see something happening go and get the iPad and the children's moved onto something else.. I personally loved the use of smaller devices.

Seen one educator using the talk to type and this saved even more time. Another positive to the devices where that the educators where more with the children (I have noticed that with the larger iPads educators sometimes are very zoned into the iPads). I don't know why management took the devices away- perhaps because it looked like we where using phones- effective communication to families would have been more effective than removing them IMO but many educators miss them and highly valued them.

Using personal phones is a massive no!! For many many reasons..

But you have to also question why they are using it and addressing this? Is it the fact as you mentioned that leadership is using it and so it follows down the chain- '.. is doing it so I thought I could'

Or is it that it's an easier option than a large iPad?

[Lorina]

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I agree, iPads are cumbersome and intrusive where a phone can be put in a pocket when not in use. I understand the issues of privacy etc but once photos, including photos of groups of children, are downloaded onto an app, parents can save them onto their phones/devices and there is no longer any control over who can access them.

[Lorina]

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Pull out your policy and address it.

If it's a barrier for your educators find out why they need to use thier own device???
Your center may need to purchase more devices.

We find at our service each room needs at least 2 iPads per room to function.
In this day an age with everything being online the demand for tech use is high.
If the center wont provide adequate devices for educators to complete work then you may need to go back to paper observations which wont support your sustainability practices.

Conduct an investigation with your educators and work out a solution that helps the educators complete thier online tasks.

[Lorina]

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Nope. If i knew my kid was having photos taken on someone else's phone id be up in arms. Having worked daycare aswell its a massive breach. Who has access to these pics? they do not have my consent. If a parent does not sign a consent form no consent is given. If no consent if given this can be seen as a a crime and child sex offences related. Its very serious. Look into the police network for related laws. But its a very fine line and all staff need to be reminded and spoken to about consent. A childcare worker could have a sex offender as a partner knwon or not and then they can access those pics... not on.