School blanks out faces of pupils

A child protection group has criticised a primary school in Essex for blurring the faces of pupils on its website.

Cann Hall Primary School, in Clacton-on-Sea, is blanking out children's faces on pictures published on its website "for safety reasons".

But the NSPCC said the school "may have gone too far".

Headteacher Clare Reece said blurring children's faces underlined warnings the school gave about the potential dangers for youngsters on the internet.

She said photographs of school teams and groups were published on the school website but with faces blurred.

'Impulse' reaction

In recent weeks, because of a "computer glitch", the school also covered the children's heads with cartoon smiley faces, to prevent them from being identified, because blurring them had not been possible.

Chris Cloke, the NSPCC's head of child protection awareness, said: "Anyone posting photos of children on the internet needs to carefully consider the risk this poses to children.

"However, in this case the impulse to protect children's identity may have gone too far."

He said schools and organisations working with children had other options.

"Schools and other organisations can take sensible precautions that strike a balance between protection and celebrating children's achievements," he said.

"For example, placing photos of children in a password-protected area of their website only accessible by staff and children."