Legal issues and your church’s website

More than half of all Brethren in Christ churches now host a website, which means there are a lot of BIC faces on the Internet for all to see. What are the legal issues that should be considered when choosing photos for your site?

According to the July–August issue of Church Law & Tax Report, there are three levels of sensitivity to which congregational webmasters should give attention.

First, using photos of events depicting several people is ordinarily not a problem, especially when no personally identifiable information is shared (name, address, phone number, e-mail, etc.). No releases are obtained for such photos. They merely report an event that actually happened. A good example would be photos of sporting events with fans clearly visible in the background.

Second, the greatest risk is to post images of minors with personally identifiable information. This becomes globally circulated among the pedophile community, and allows child molesters to solicit and seduce these children.

Third, with regard to photos of adolescents, the pedophile risk is reduced if not eliminated although there remains the risk of sexual predators. However, there is an additional issue to consider, which is invasion of privacy. The use of someone’s likeness without permission has been deemed an invasion of privacy by some courts, be they adolescents or adults.

The risk goes way up if 1) the image is used for commercial purposes (in a money-making venture, even if by a nonprofit entity), or 2) you use the image in connection with demeaning text (for example, an image of an adolescent in an article on victims of child abuse). If neither of these two factors is present, then the risk of invasion of privacy is reduced significantly, but not eliminated.

A church can easily address privacy and permission concerns by obtaining express or implied consent. Express consent is written consent by a parent. Implied consent may occur if a church, for example, inserts notices in the church bulletin or newsletter a few times each year advising members that the church will use candid photos of various church activities on its website from time to time. Members not wanting their photos depicted (or those of their children) should so inform the church office.

The church office can then create a list of persons whose photos are not to be displayed, keeping in mind that photos of children should never contain personally identifiable information.

Adapted from Church Law & Tax Report, July/August 2006, p. 31.

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