Handling photos and videos
How to handle photos and videos taken at Girlguiding
Page last updated 1 October 2025.
See change log for recent updates to this webpage.
Find out what's changed and why in the most recent updates to this procedure.
This page is part of our managing information procedure.
This procedure explains how to follow the managing information policy when taking and sharing photos and videos of young members and adult volunteers.
Images where you can clearly see someone’s face, or you can tell who someone is, are considered personal data. This means they need to be handled carefully.
This procedure is for volunteers. Girlguiding employees must use the staff procedure on the intranet.
Photo and video consent
Young member consent
When a young member joins Girlguiding, their parent or carer will fill out a new starter form. This allows parents, carers and young members to take control of how their images are used.
Parents and carers can log into GO at any time and change the photo and video permissions for their daughter. Rangers and young volunteers over the age of 14 can log into GO themselves to choose how their images are used.
Volunteer consent
When a volunteer joins Girlguiding, they can choose how their images will be used. They can update this at any time by logging into GO.
Parents and carers, and volunteers choose one of these options:
- Photos/videos can be shared and published and used for marketing – this means they’re happy for photos, videos, storytelling and other visual and audio content of their child to be taken/collected, used for promotional and marketing purposes, published in public-facing media and shared within Girlguiding and with partners and local newspapers.
- Photo/videos can be used for unit use only – this means they're happy for photos, videos, storytelling and other visual and audio content of their child to be taken/collected, used as a record of unit activities, not published in any public-facing media and not shared outside the unit. This may include unit specific social media channels (that are closed to the public).
- Do not take photo/videos – this means they don't want photos, videos, storytelling and other visual and audio content featuring their child to be taken.
Keeping photo permissions up to date
Unit leaders should remind parents, carers, volunteers and young members to keep their photo permissions up to date, and ask them to let you know if anything changes. You should do this at least once a year. We also recommend you do it before events so they can change permissions if needed. They can update permissions by logging into GO.
Photo permissions end when someone leaves the unit. When someone moves to a new unit or section, or leaves Girlguiding you must delete any images you have of them, unless you have a clear reason to keep them. For example, some photos can be kept in an archive for your unit or level. Find out more about keeping historical records in archives.
Taking photos and videos
If you’re not sure about photo permissions, don’t take the photo.
Photos and videos are a great way to celebrate the amazing things girls get up to at Girlguiding meetings and events. But it’s really important we make sure everyone feels safe, included and respected when cameras are around.
The unit leaders must make sure everyone follows their girls’ and volunteers’ photo permissions at unit meetings or events. When events are taking place with other units, this might mean letting other volunteers know who mustn’t have their photo taken. If there are too many people to make this possible, it might mean making sure other volunteers only take only non-identifiable photos.
If you’re taking photos at a unit meeting or event for Girlguiding advertising or marketing purposes, you need to make sure you have appropriate consent.
The photo permissions parents and carers, girls and volunteers choose from when they join Girlguiding include photos and videos being used for marketing. But if you’re planning to spend money on a big campaign you should gain additional specific consent to avoid running into any problems later.
Contact your country or region office to request a template consent form to use for this purpose.
If you’re unsure of the permissions people have, you can still take photos and videos as long as you can’t identify anyone in them. You can do this at unit meetings and at events. You could:
- Take photos of backs of heads instead of faces.
- Get girls and volunteers to cover their faces with homemade masks or other props.
- Focus on some close-ups, like hands, when people are doing an activity, or feet if they’re running around.
- Use other creative ways to capture the moment, for example, taking photos of the setting or props from the meeting rather than the girls or volunteers.
Non-identifiable images aren’t personal data, so you don’t need to store or share them in the same way.
Anyone outside the unit leadership team won’t know which young members or volunteers shouldn’t be in photos and videos. Unit leaders and event organisers, must take steps to manage this risk.
Parents, carers and other family or friends might want to take photos or videos at unit meetings and events. Especially when there’s something special to celebrate, like their daughter making her promise or badges being awarded.
Before their visit, or on the day, ask visitors to:
- Only take photos of the child or volunteer they’ve come to see, if possible.
- Check with other parents or carers before taking photos of other young members, and with volunteers before taking their photo.
- Check with other parents or carers before sharing images of other young members on social media or with family and friends. And check with volunteers before sharing their images too.
- Depending on the age of the young members, it might be appropriate to check with them directly as well.
Young members might also want to take photos and videos at unit meetings or events. Encourage them to check with other people before taking photos or sharing them on social media.
You may need to put other rules in place depending on the event and on the girls and volunteers in your unit. For example, if there’s a safeguarding concern meaning a girl mustn’t be in any photos or videos, you might need to put stricter rules in place for everyone to keep her safe.
If someone from outside Girlguiding visits your unit meeting to run a session, you must make sure they complete the external visitor form. This explains our rules around photos and videos.
Photos and videos at large-scale events
There’s no set number of attendees that defines a large-scale event. It’s less about how many people are attending, and more about the level of complexity. You can find out more in our large-scale event toolkit.
Photos and video consent at large-scale events
Consent for photos and videos is different at large-scale events. Our information and consent form asks parents and carers to let their unit leader know if they don't want photos or videos taken of their child at the event. As far as possible the event organiser will make sure that their child doesn’t appear in any images, but this can’t be guaranteed due to the size and nature of the event.
To help parents, carers, young members and volunteers make an informed decision, leaders must:
- Share relevant information about how photos or videos may be used during the event, and afterwards.
- Make sure they know that they can withdraw their consent to be in photos or videos at any time, including during the event. The event organiser will share who they should speak to about this.
If any parents, carers, young members or volunteers don’t want to be in images, the event organiser must be told so they can take steps to manage this.
Receiving photos and videos
If someone shares a photo or video with you of Girlguiding volunteers or young members, you must check the photo permissions for those in the image.
If the image has been shared by a volunteer, ask them to confirm the correct photo permissions are in place.
If a parent or carer has sent the photo, you can save the covering email or letter with the photo as a record of the permission you have for the image.
Storing photos and videos
You must:
- Store photos and videos in a secure place, like a password protected folder on your computer, or in cloud storage with limited access.
- Delete photos and videos from all devices after they’ve been used for the reasons they were taken or within 14 days, whichever is sooner. For example, after you upload photos to social media pages or share them with parents or carers, you must delete them from the phone or camera they were taken on.
- Check your personal cloud backups and delete photos and videos from there too.
Deleting photos and videos
As with other types of personal data, photos and videos must not be kept for longer than necessary, and must be deleted once they’ve been used for the purpose they were taken. For example, if you take photos during a unit meeting to share with parents and carers, once you’ve done this the images must be deleted. Some photos can be kept in an archive for your unit or level.
If someone previously gave consent but doesn’t want a specific photo or video to be used, you must do your best to help. Ask them for more information about where the photo is being used or stored and try to get it taken down or deleted. This includes photos or videos taken as part of a group.
- If you’ve posted the image or video on social media recently, remove it. If it was some time ago, and it’s too difficult to find and delete it, make sure you don’t use the image again.
- If the photo is in a printed resource, change it before reprinting.
- Contact anyone you’ve shared the photo or video with and ask them to stop using it.
- If the image has been used in the press, you must contact the media source and ask them to remove it.
