Advance used unblurred footage of minors taken from education organisations without consent in new ad

Australia Broadcast Center

21 hours ago

Conservative lobby group Advance is under fire for repurposing footage of identifiable children without obtaining consent in a new ad attacking Welcome to Country ceremonies.
When contacted by ABC NEWS Verify, many of the schools, child education centres, and organisations that had videos taken for use in the ad, said permission was not granted to use the footage, and they want the ad taken down.
Advance started advertising with the ad, titled "Welcome To Your Own Country", on June 15 on Meta platforms.
It uploaded the video on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube — where, combined, it has been viewed more than 230,000 times.
The ad shows minors taking part in Acknowledgement of Country activities at education facilities — with some of the children clearly identifiable.
A face blur has only been used on some of the children. Some adult educators can also be identified.
ABC NEWS Verify has chosen not to name any of the education facilities involved. Below are stills of the ad, but the images have been blurred, so children and adults can't be identified.
ABC NEWS Verify has analysed the video and, using basic open-source techniques, was able to identify footage taken from the public social media accounts of four childcare and/or early learning centres, one playgroup organisation, two primary schools, and one prep to year 12 school.
Footage featuring children filmed by not-for-profit group Reconciliation Australia was also used — as well as a clip featuring children from ABC programming.
ABC NEWS Verify contacted the above organisations to ask if permission had been sought by Advance to use the footage in its ad.
All but one replied by deadline confirming permission had not been sought.
"The ad has been sourced from material publicly available on the internet," a spokesperson for Advance said.
Some of the schools referred the inquiry to their respective education departments.
"No permission has been granted by the ACT Education Directorate [or the primary school] for the use of this video. No consent has been granted by the parents of the children in the video for it to be used in this way," one said.
"We object to footage of our students being used in this way, even more so without their knowledge and without the consent of their parents," it said.
The Queensland Education Department said neither it, nor the school featured in the ad, were approached for permission to use the video.
"The department is currently supporting the school to report the unauthorised use of footage to YouTube," it said.
Reconciliation Australia also provided a statement.
"Advance has not sought our permission to use the images contained in their ad," it said.
"Written release forms were signed by all parents and guardians giving permission for Reconciliation Australia to use images of the children featured in the original video.
"We are very concerned that Advance appears to have used images of minors with no attempt to de-identify many of the children nor to acquire consent from their parents or guardians, and without permission from Reconciliation Australia," it said.
At least seven adult educators feature in the video — some have their faces blurred, but a number do not.
A staff member from a playgroup organisation is prominently featured at the start of the ad.
That organisation's chief executive told ABC NEWS Verify it had lodged an official complaint with YouTube and was seeking advice from the eSafety Commissioner on what to do if the video isn't removed.
"I am deeply concerned to learn that footage originating from our official YouTube channel has been used without our consent in a political advertising campaign," they said.
"We unequivocally condemn Advance Australia's unauthorised use of [the] material."
It is understood the ABC was also unaware of its footage being used in the ad.
ABC NEWS Verify contacted Advance and informed them that several organisations had said they would like their footage removed from the ad.
In response, Advance said that it had not received any complaints.
"We have not been contacted by any individual or organisations with the concerns you refer to in your questions," it said.
"In fact, the response to the ad has been overwhelmingly positive."
Technology and privacy legal expert James Patto from Scildan Legal said "it's at least arguable" that Advance has breached the Privacy Act in repurposing the footage.
But he said it depends on whether the footage is considered "personal information" or "sensitive information" under the act.
"If it's personal information — say the children are identifiable but there's no sensitive characteristics — then Advance Australia wouldn't necessarily need consent to collect it," he told ABC NEWS Verify.
"But that doesn't mean they're off the hook.
"They'd also need to notify individuals, unless that wasn't reasonably practicable.
"It's important to remember that just because something's online doesn't mean it's fair game under privacy law."
He said it's a different story if the footage is determined to be "sensitive information".
"If the footage includes sensitive information, like racial or ethnic origin or biometric features, then consent is required to collect and use it," Mr Patto said.
"That consent has to be specific to Advance and for the political purpose. Consent given to a school or film crew wouldn't likely cut it.
"I think it's at least arguable that some of the footage could reveal sensitive information, like race and ethnic origin," he said.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner is the country's privacy regulator.
It was contacted but failed to respond directly to questions concerning the ad.