We care about the safety of the children in your organization. Many of our competitors now automatically post the photos that they take on the internet, and some even advertise this as a 'benefit' of their service. Please consider the following points before you opt to use one of these services.

1. It is not necessary to post children's images on the internet. Virtually every parent pre-orders some photos. In fact no photo is taken if a parent does not order a photo to begin with. Since parents get a copy of their child's photo, they do not need to see it on the internet. Neither is it necessary to post photos on the internet for reorder purposes. Our lab assigns a unique number to each child and has a website that can be used using that unique and anonymous number for reordering.

2. We respect parents rights to control images of their children and we give them the right and ability to post their children's images when and where they choose. Unlike most companies, we do not protect our copyright. We freely allow parents to scan images and our customer service department will e-mail any image to a parent on request FREE! Parents can share images using their own discretion.

3. Posting of children's images can lead to unanticipated harm. Information and images about children can be used to gain their trust or to locate children that are in protective hiding from dangerous family members or in various programs such as witness protection. League officials will be unaware that such children participate in their program, but it is an important possibility. Many league websites post schedules and this information can be coupled with a name and image to locate a child and may put children in danger.

4. It sends the wrong message to children that the display of photos on the internet is 'normal' and 'approved of' by respected organizations.

We are open to comments on this policy, which does not conflict with our policy of providing those leagues that request the images of their participants a full DVD of all team and individual photos at no extra charge.