Supporting Piano Education
Article written by Andrew Eales
Scroll through your social media feeds, and if you’ve ever taken an interest in piano education it’s likely you will encounter videos of children at their piano lessons, students performing in events, and celebratory photos of them with certificates or trophies.
The desire to share such media online is understandable from a number of angles. Firstly, and most obviously, it seems entirely appropriate for parents to celebrate their children’s musical achievements on their private page in this way, and potentially for teachers and schools to do the same.
“It’s important that children and young people feel happy about their achievements and have images of their special moments for themselves and their families to look back on. This might include photos and videos taken by teachers during school performances and special events, or by staff and volunteers delivering events and activities outside of school.”
Secondly, there are good reasons for teachers to share videos on forums when seeking advice from colleagues: what better way to explain a technical challenge or developmental issue when seeking an expert second opinion?
Thirdly, some teachers use pupil videos to promote their teaching. Personally, it concerns me that doing this could easily skew a teacher’s attitude towards learners who don’t enjoy performing, or result in them enforcing their own interpretation of a piece rather than nurturing the player’s own response. Nevertheless, as a colleague explained to me recently, she sees videos of pupils as her “professional portfolio”.
So why not share student images and videos online? When considering this question, we need to firstly understand that there’s a big difference between:
- public publishing: for example on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or a teacher/school/festival/etc website
- private publishing: such as in a secure, password-protected web space, or a private WhatsApp group
This article pertains particularly to publishing or sharing media on public platforms, explores the reasons that so many professionals are opposed to this practice, and highlights the legal, ethical, and professional concerns that parents and teachers should all understand and mitigate if sharing student videos or images online publicly.
These are thorny and sometimes complex issues that I have had to grapple with over recent years, and investigate from a number of angles: as a teacher, business and website owner, and online forum moderator. In this article I will outline what I’ve found…
Child Protection
UK schools, educational organisations, and private teachers have for a while been consistently advised to avoid posting images or videos of children altogether, or at least unless they have very clear written permission from children, parents, and anyone else who can be identified. The NSPCC are among those who have actively campaigned to strengthen these rules.
Having already seen that the NSPCC offer a positive take on the benefits of celebrating young people’s achievements, let’s consider why they are nevertheless concerned. Their guidance explains that some children, parents or carers may prefer not to have photos or videos of themselves or their children taken, and they give numerous examples.
- Some have religious, cultural, or professional reasons for choosing not to have photos or videos of family members taken or shared.
- Where children have limited contact with some family members, parents may want to minimise their online presence.
- When a child and/or their family have experienced abuse, they may worry about images of the child being shared online, enabling the person who perpetrated the abuse to trace their whereabouts.
- In some cases, a child’s identity may need to be protected because they are in local authority care or they have been adopted.
The simple (and rather depressing) reality is that sharing an image or video of a student playing the piano can expose the child to unwanted attention, especially if shared on public platforms where personal information can easily be linked to the content.
Additionally, images or videos can be manipulated or misused in harmful ways, leading to exploitation or cyberbullying. Based on their extensive real-world experience, the NSPCC list the following significant dangers attached to sharing children’s images or videos online:
- images being misused out of context or modified using AI, for example to create child abuse images.
- a child being identified for the purpose of future grooming/abuse.
- a vulnerable child being identified by an existing perpetrator of abuse.
The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) have now gone further, issuing a recommendation to educational organisations to remove identifiable pictures of students from their websites and social media accounts, due to the rise in cyber criminals blackmailing them with sexually explicit AI deepfakes created using images or videos they have posted online.
It’s sickening, but unfortunately AI manipulation, “sextortion”, and deepfake abuse are all widely recognised as real and escalating risks.
Parents too…
Since this article was first published, the National Crime Agency have gone further, in conjunction with the Internet Watch Foundation, and are now advising that parents also consider removing images/videos of their children from the public internet.
Their advice, summarised here, is threefold:
Review Privacy Settings:
“If you’d like to share photos of your child online, we suggest creating a ‘close friends’ group or limiting visibility so only selected people can see them.”
Check Your Social Media Accounts:
“Start by looking through your own social media accounts. Check the images and videos you have shared and ask yourself, can my child’s face, body or school uniform be seen?“
Revisit Image Consent:
“You can also review the consent forms you’ve signed at places your child attends, such as school or clubs… It’s ok to ask people not to post photos or videos of your child online.”
Bearing in mind the raised threat level, it is important that parents take this advice seriously. Should you wish to have photos and videos of your child removed from public online view, it is acceptable and advisable to contact piano teachers, schools, exam boards, festival organisers and anyone else who has posted or shared them and demand immediate removal.
You have an absolute legal right to withdraw any written consent you have previously given, and with immediate effect.
Data Protection
Piano teachers sometimes make the mistake of thinking that so long as a player’s full name is not given, sharing their image or video is okay. But this isn’t the case, and those who believe that the benefits of publicly sharing student images or videos outweigh the problems need to consider the issue of data protection with more care.
Legally, if anyone can be identified in an image or video, whether directly or indirectly (for example, from the context, venue, visible uniforms, or hidden metadata contained within the image file), the media is considered to be their personal data, even if they are not named.
This means that the teacher or their organisation will need a legal basis for sharing the image or video. For music teachers and organisations, obtaining “informed consent” is usually considered the safest and most ethical basis, because:
- publicly sharing such media is often done for the teacher or organisation’s own promotion
- publication of the image or video is rarely strictly necessary.
- there is a recognised power imbalance between pupil/teacher
In UK safeguarding practice, teachers and/or organisations are generally advised to obtain this consent from parents in writing before sharing images of children under 16. Teenagers may be increasingly able to make these decisions themselves, depending on their maturity and circumstances, but many organisations still involve parents up to 18, at which age the performer’s written consent will suffice.
Under GDPR, consent should be freely given, which means that we should mitigate the possibility that some could feel uncomfortable saying no, won’t want to appear ‘difficult’, or might worry that refusal could disadvantage their child. Teachers should reflect carefully on whether families genuinely feel free to decline consent without embarrassment or concern.
Where consent is the legal basis for sharing media, those identifiable in the image or video can later withdraw that consent. This could include, for example, a teenager whose parent or guardian previously gave consent on their behalf.
Children cannot meaningfully anticipate future embarrassment, the permanence of online content, AI scraping, or later reputational consequences. A child who is delighted to appear in a performance video aged 9 may feel very differently about the same material remaining searchable online by the time they reach the age of 16.
Should consent be withdrawn, the teacher or organisation must make every reasonable effort to ensure that previously published media is removed across all platforms where it has been shared. Social media sites generally offer tools for requesting this, but once content has been publicly shared online, complete removal may not be achievable.
To summarise, if you are a piano teacher who wishes to make, collect, store, or share a pupil image or video, you will need to follow the following steps to ensure data protection compliance:
- Many music organisations and self-employed piano teachers who electronically process personal information, including images or videos, are likely to need to register as a ‘data controller’ with the Information Commissioner’s Office and pay an annual fee.
- You will need a privacy notice which explains who you are, the purpose of the image or video, how, why, and where it will be used, and how long you’ll keep it.
- You will need informed written consent from performers, children, parents, and any others who can be identified from the image or video (such as other teachers, competition judges, or audience members shown). Use age appropriate language, explain how the image will be used, stored, and shared (e.g. your website, marketing brochures, and/or specific social media sites).
- Store video files securely, and delete them when no longer needed; only keep archived versions if parents agree. Similarly retain signed copies of all written consents, securely stored.
- You must explain to the student, performer, or parent their rights to access the data (request a copy), request deletion (“right to erasure”), to object to certain uses (e.g. for marketing your teaching), and to request restriction or correction at any time.
Many music teachers who never publicly share student images or videos nevertheless choose to register with the ICO simply because it demonstrates professionalism, reassures parents, and reduces regulatory risk if complaints arise later.
Closing thoughts
As teachers, I believe we have a duty of care to protect the safety and wellbeing of students so far as we can, thereby maintaining a secure and healthy learning environment for all within our teaching studios.
While legal requirements differ internationally, many of these safeguarding and ethical concerns apply regardless of jurisdiction. But none of this means that every image or video-sharing decision is reckless or dangerous. Rather, as teachers we should approach publication thoughtfully, proportionately, and with a safeguarding-first mindset.
My professional judgement has always been to err on the side of caution. I don’t believe we should look for danger at every turn, but I recognise that it nevertheless exists, and feel that the warnings given by the NSPCC, the NCA, and others should be taken seriously, and give credible reason for concern.
Even if consent is obtained from performers, parents, or guardians, there is a risk that their personal data (the video, or a screenshot of an image) could be shared further without permission, complicating the issue of accountability.
Teachers who choose to share media publicly online despite advice to the contrary should therefore consider risk-reduction measures such as:
- using first names only.
- disabling location tagging.
- removing school identifiers (uniforms, signage, etc)
- limiting audience access to a private page.
- avoiding close-up images, or blanking out faces.
- stripping metadata from media files.
- regularly reviewing old content.
We also need to consider how we present the issue to audiences at events we organise. Some teachers suggest to parents, family and friends of performers that they can photograph and film at events for their private use only, while others might opt for insisting on a complete embargo.
Ultimately, maintaining a child’s safety and privacy should always take priority over sharing media online. The question is not simply ‘can we share this?’ but ‘is sharing this genuinely necessary, proportionate, and in the child’s long-term interests?’
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