The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) has published guidance for journalists and editors when engaging with and reporting on children.

The guidance seeks to offer practical assistance, complete with case studies, in navigating those parts of the Editors’ Code of Practice (Clauses 6, 7, and 9) that are particularly relevant to reporting on children.

As IPSO makes clear, the Code is not intended to prevent the investigative reporting of issues relating to children, but rather to ensure that it is done responsibly. For example, children under 16 must not be paid for material involving their welfare unless it is clearly in the child’s interest, and if a story involves their or another child’s welfare, those under the age of 16 should not be interviewed or photographed unless those who have legal parental responsibility have granted their consent.

As for photographs, IPSO advises that where journalists intend to use an image that was provided for a previous article in a different context, they are encouraged to consider asking for consent to use it again. Equally, pictures do not have to be pixelated under the Code, but the Guidance provides examples of recent cases where use of pixelation has served to demonstrate that journalists have considered the privacy rights of the children in question.

The Guidance also stresses that there must be an exceptional overriding public interest to justify publishing material that appears to raise a breach of the Code, and that journalists will be expected to demonstrate (a) that the public interest was proportional to the breach and (b) that consideration of the public interest took place before publication and/or the relevant journalistic activity.

Finally, the Guidance also touches on matters such as how to navigate the social media accounts of children and how to interview a child who is the subject of a story, together with the relevant rules that ought to be borne in mind in particular contexts such as court reporting, reporting on child sexual abuse, and covering major incidents.

To read the Guidance in full, click here.