Time to reframe our thinking on children's images

Some years ago, when conversations around decolonisation were limited mostly to academics, I worked for ActionAid International and was fortunate to have in my team the extremely knowledgeable Laurence Watts heading up the picture desk. Laurence championed storytelling with dignity, and understood well the power dynamics when holding up a camera - for international charities or otherwise - to those who had possibly never held one themselves. With his leadership we discussed informed consent, and the challenges of gaining consent from people who were not in the position to imagine what a primetime dinner advertising slot would look like, let alone a digital fundraising campaign.?

I have carried his insights and experiences with me in future work (thanks Laurence) as I worked to support award-winning photographers for the likes of National Geographic, delivered communications for development research institutions or supported advocates such as Tina Kurdi, the aunt of Alan Kurdi whose death became the horrific yet iconic image of the Syrian refugee crisis.?

I was therefore interested to attend a webinar of Chance for Childhood ’s Over Exposed campaign - short but sweet - it spoke directly from the Global South. Bokey Achola shared the story of a former street child he worked with, who later came across a piece of the charity’s marketing collateral featuring his image some years later when his life had moved on. How harrowing for that young person to be reminded of himself at his worst. ? In the words of fellow panellist, mental health advocate and former child refugee Grace Gatera , “they take pictures of our pain”.?

The Chance for Childhood #OverExposed campaign is not just about positive story telling and informed consent - it’s very much about those - but is also recognising that these issues are so complex to address or achieve that the charity has now taken the brave step to committing to not use identifiable images of children in their marketing material.?

I really did get goosebumps listening to this webinar - and from the comments I could see I was not alone. While the words above were so powerful to hear directly from source, one of the additional points that resonated with me was a (consenting child) saying the words “what does a segmented multi channel donation campaign mean?”. It’s a perfect reminder that when we in the development sector say we are getting consent, we need to consider how much understanding and consent is really happening, how much control the person we are showcasing really has, and where the power is when we in the Fundraising North get to decide how that image is used and why.?

Their video voiceover also asks “why is my picture on social media profiles that are not mine”. This also struck home because my step son, aged 16, has asked for photos featuring him not to be used on Facebook. How can we honour requests from our own children, and not consider the widespread use of images from someone much younger and much more vulnerable? How can we support them to have the same agency as my 16 year old??

The webinar raised so many questions and challenges but most importantly it gave hope. I will be honest - I have not heard of Chance for Childhood till now, and I had not heard of many of the (I assume) small NGOs that joined the webinar to learn more, perhaps to pledge their support to the campaign and to journey through the five weeks of learning, reflection and practice that launch this campaign. But I hope to hear more of Chance for Childhood as a result of this brave and well conceived campaign and I hope the big players like Save and 联合国儿童基金会 hear of them too. That of course will only be possible if we all join the conversation. Whether we are donors, photographers, fundraisers, policy staff, freelancers, or consultants like myself, we need to raise the profile of this important issue and keep talking about it. So my part of the pledge starts here and I am grateful to Chance for Childhood for challenging us to reframe our thinking.

Visit: https://chanceforchildhood.org/ or talk to Vicky Ferguson to learn more.