Korean Job Discussion Forums

[dporter]

In a previous life I taught at a university in China. All my students were 18+ and I occasionally took photos of my classes.

While looking over many blogs of teachers in Korea I've noticed a great deal of photos of students who are as young as maybe 6 years old.

For those teachers who blog and post photos of students in these early grades - have you ever considered the privacy of the students and/or the parents wishes?

I dont mean to be critical. Its just that my current job is research focused and we could never get by with taking a photo of someone without getting some form of consent.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

If the school never asks permission when putting pics up on its website do you need to? Lots of Korean teachers do it without ever asking permission. It's just not a big deal here.

As for the fears of a less innocent west, if it's on an English website it's far less likely a predator in Korea would ever happen to come across it than on a school website, don't you think?

[Rory_Calhoun27]

[Big Mac]

Do you think newspapers in North America get permission from every person they put in the newspaper? No. It might be courteous for them to ask first, but they don't have to.

If I remember correctly from my media law class in journalism school, the law is that if you are in a public place when a photo is taken, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy. If you are in a private place when the photo is taken of you (such as your home), then you may have a case against the publication of your picture. But I think there have been very few successful cases in Canada. I seem to remember discussing a case of a girl sitting on her front porch when a photo was taken of her as one successful case.

I think if the picture is used for commercial purposes without permission, such as for an ad, then you might be able to sue them.

But these are Western rules...I don't know about the rules in Korea. Given what I've seen about their laid back attitude towards privacy, I would think that there would be no rules.

[lifeinkorea]

I rarely take photos, but when I do (even if it is just a statue or a building) I make sure people can see me doing it. If they object, they can always move. I don't take pictures immediately, so they have enough time to remove themselves.

[WendyRose]

I've thought about this before but came to the conclusion that it's okay. According to intellectual property law, it's 100% legal until you make a profit off of someone else's name/face/etc. And even then, the only thing stopping you is a contract. If you are that concerned, type up a mini contract and have your students' parents sign it.

And honestly, I don't know how the laws work on an international level.

[dporter]

[Big Mac]

I would consider a classroom a public place.

[Robot_Teacher]

Well, they think nothing of sending national KBS out on very last minute notice to do video on foreigners trying to speak Korean and teach English. Photographing and video recording people at work, school, and in public is not a big deal in Korea.

[ChinaBoy]

[MollyBloom]

[ChinaBoy]

[Straphanger]

The only reason I video my students is to demonstrate their performance to the Boss, who is genuinely concerned with how they are doing and interested in my job (I prefer bosses like this). I've never seen a reason to photograph them.

[Straphanger]

[MollyBloom]