Photos of children on playgrounds.
“We’re constantly reproducing these images that have no respect for informed consent,” Ogard says. “In Norway, I would never show up at a school and take a selfie with kids playing.”
Photos of sick children in hospital beds.
The campaigners illustrate this point in their animated video. The young volunteer takes a selfie with a sick child in a hospital bed while bored hospital staffers look on. “It completely disregards the child’s needs,” Worrall says.
For years, communicators in the field of global development have been working to fight stereotype-reinforcing images in charity ads through awareness campaigns and codes of ethics. But few specifically address social media or are geared toward young people.
Susan Krenn is the executive director of Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Communication Programs, and her work centers on global development and public health programs overseas. While the university has a cultural orientation program for students traveling abroad, there are no hard and fast rules for how to portray their experience on social media. “I have not seen a resource like this,” she says of the guidelines. “We’d use it. It’s quite helpful, clear and easy.”
Ogard and Worrall don’t want the guidelines to discourage volunteers from posting photos on social media. They just want photo-takers to reflect on what they’re sharing. Ask for a subject’s consent, they say. Show your social followers something different.
If you need inspiration, Worrall says, check out some of the positive imagery from charities that received a Golden Radiator award in Radi-Aid’s annual contest for the best and worst charity ads. These ads, like those from an NGO called Mama Hope, show local people actively engaged in helping others in their community.
If you’re staying with a family in a low-income environment and they allow you to take a photo with their children, use it as a “great opportunity to challenge stereotypes,” Worrall says. That might mean providing details and context — names, locations, personal stories — in an extended caption on social media.
And if a child gets excited when they see you pull out your tablet or smartphone and ask to take a photo with you, that doesn’t mean it’s OK to do so. “It’s a cop out to say, well, they want it,” Worrall says. “A child can’t make that kind of decision.”
“Think of how they would view the photo if they found it at 25 years old,” she adds. “How would it make them feel?”
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