Schools use Facebook to celebrate success and connect families, but student image privacy, AI deepfakes and the misuse of school photos mean those images now require greater care.
This was a genuine topic of discussion at the recent ICP conference, which we attended. I spoke with school leaders who are increasingly questioning whether identifiable student photos should still be published on Facebook and other public channels.
Notably, Takaro School principal Josie Woon has been one of the first school leaders to stop sharing student photos on Facebook. As highlighted in a recent RNZ report, her decision reflects growing concerns about student privacy and the lack of control schools have over an image once it is published online.
The same discussion is happening in Australia. Brisbane’s Brigidine College has stopped publishing recognisable student photos on social media, choosing instead to use photos taken from behind, at a distance or in larger groups.
Read how Australian schools are restricting recognisable student photos on social media
I understand these concerns, but I don’t believe leaving Facebook is the only answer.
The risk of sharing student photos online has changed
An image published online can be copied, searched, downloaded and altered without the school or family knowing. AI now makes it much easier to create face swaps, false videos and convincing deepfakes from an ordinary photograph.
Protect student identities without leaving Facebook
Facebook remains an important communication channel for many schools. It helps them reach whānau, alumni, prospective families and the wider community. Those positive stories still deserve to be shared.
I don’t think the question should be: Should we leave Facebook?
A better question is: Does every student need to be identifiable for us to tell this story?
This is one of the reasons we developed Hail Image Privacy. Schools can blur every detected face in an image with one click before publishing it to Facebook and Instagram. Your community will still see the stories you want to share, but the identities of staff, students, and others in the image will be hidden.
See how a Facebook post appears with Image Privacy enabled.
The blurring is deliberately subtle. It appears as a soft photographic blur, not a smiley-face emoji 😀or an obvious graphic placed over someone’s face, so the image still feels natural and the school’s story remains the focus.
I don’t believe the answer is for schools to disappear from Facebook or stop celebrating their students. The answer is to share more carefully. With current consent, thoughtful publishing decisions, and the ability to hide faces when students don’t need to be identifiable, schools can keep telling the stories that bring their communities together without unnecessarily exposing students.
Keep sharing the stories that matter, while protecting the people within them.
Stuart Dillon-Roberts
