Ethics of posting Junior High sporting events?

[latinbob]

I'm in a bit of a dilemma. I have started posting pictures from my niece's basketball games. She's in Junior High in the U.S. Should I not post pictures that include other kids? Is a junior high school gymnasium considered a public place? I'm just wondering if I should post any pictures from these games at all in my PAD gallery, or any pbase gallery for that matter.

[talleyfamilyphotography]

I believe you are OK. I can't remember what reference I have on that at the moment, but I researched the issue before posting soccer pictures on my pbase galleries.

The only main difference is that my soccer pictures were taken on fields open to the public and where there was no charge to attend the festivities. Since you probably had to pay for a ticket to go to the basketball game, there may be a slight difference in the term "public place".

If you ask a few of the girls' parents if they mind if you display the pictures on a public forum and none disagree, then I would guess you won't run into any problems.

[donna_lear]

When I've gone to take photos of events (sporting, pep rallies, dances, etc) at any of the local schools for my job at the newspaper, the school knows I'm there working, but the parents don't always know who I am. I may be able to get the name of the kid/kids I'm primarily focusing on, but there's always the chance that I've also caught some other kids as well. These are considered public places.
While the ones used for work are left intact as far as names of kids on uniforms or other identifiers, when it comes to posting them online, I usually try to eliminate anything that might be used to identify a child or their school.
Other than that, I personally don't see there should be any ethical issues of using a photo you took at one of these events on Pbase.

[dazedgonebye]

My wife's school district has some very definite rules about parental permission before kids pics can be published in any way. Not that you would be bound by those rules, necessarily.

[latinbob]

Thanks for all the replies so far. I'm kind of on the fence on this one. I don't think there are any legal issues, but I don't want any of the other parents mad at my sister in law or my niece. They have parental permission ships in this district too, so I just decided to password protect their main gallery. I'll only post pictures of my niece in my public galleries for now. It kind of takes the fun out of it, but I do understand parents' concerns.

[troonly]

Bit tricky.

I shoot at my daughters athletics events, and you can't avoid taking other kids in the shots. I must say I mostly only take photos of her and people I know (then send them the shots or the link to pbase!). Some events you can register your camera. I think you have to be reasonable and avoid any dodgy angles and so-on and shout encouragement to your daughter so they know you're genuine . Don't see it getting any easier in the future.

I also shoot shots of our training band, and all the parents have signed to say they're happy with that and that the photos may be published. Seemed the only way to manage it!