Photo © Brian Rapsey

Use of images and voices of children guidelines

It's vital to ensure we follow the correct guidelines when photographing or videoing children.

Why this matters

At World Nomads, we believe that the rights of children should always be protected. It's important to us that images of children that feature in any of our content do not put children at risk of harm or exploitation.

Children are classified as being under the age of 16. If in doubt assume someone is a child.

What we never do

  • We do not feature any images/video of a child or children in orphanages or homes for parentless children.
  • We do not feature images/video of travelers cuddling or posing with children without family (presumed, or an adult that looks like they are from the same community) present in the image as well.

Please note: We’ll never know the context of an image for certain. The important thing to ask yourself is; what impression does the photograph giving the audience? Will they see the image and engage in unethical behavior?

Editorial use guidelines

This criteria applies to all images/video of children whether they are alone or with other children, and regardless of whether they can be identified or not.

We do feature images/video of children so long as all of the following three criteria are met for each image:

  • the image is in the context of a story (context: the use of the image is relevant and required in order to the tell a compelling story within an article, travel story, essay, film, podcast),
  • the image/video has a relevant caption/voice-over that explains the image/video importance to the story and,
  • the content producer has seen and agreed to our Content Creator's Code of Conduct
  • We do feature images/video of a child or children in the streets, schools or landscapes within the context of a wider community (there are local adults in the image as well, not assumed, but pictured).

Where possible, we will ask the content producer if a model release is available. If so, we will request a copy of this release.