You should know exactly who is photographing your child, how consent works, and what happens to their photos afterwards. Here are straight answers to the questions parents actually ask us.
Consent & your choices · Safety on photo day · Your child's images · Marketing & image use
No child is photographed without consent recorded before photo day.
Photos sit behind a password and are only shared with your family.
If your child isn't comfortable, we stop. Always.
Ask us to delete your child's images at any time.
We only photograph children. That's the whole business — early learning centres, kinders, schools and sports clubs across Victoria, and nothing else. It means every process we have has been built around one question: is this safe and respectful for the child in front of us?
We're a founding member of ELPA, the national child-safe standard for early-learning photography. Our practices align with the eleven Victorian Child Safe Standards, Ministerial Order 1359, the National Quality Framework, the Australian Privacy Principles and the ACECQA National Model Code for taking images of children.
Looking for our formal compliance documents instead? Those live on our Trust & Safety hub and in our Child Safe Policy.
We don't photograph first and ask later. Consent is collected and checked before we arrive, and you can change your mind at any point.
You register your child with us before photo day, using the link or QR code your centre shares. Only children registered by a parent or guardian are photographed, and our team checks the list on the day. A child whose consent we can't verify simply isn't photographed — if we're unsure, we don't shoot.
No. Those are two completely separate things. Consent to photograph happens before photo day, when you register your child. Logging in to view a gallery, or buying a print, is never treated as photography consent.
Yes. Plenty of families do exactly that. You can opt out of the group photo and still have individual portraits taken, or the reverse. Choose it when you register, or email us, and we'll make sure it's recorded before photo day.
Yes. Consent isn't a one-way door. Contact our Child Safety Officer and we'll remove your child from the gallery and delete the images — see Your child's images for how deletion works.
Our photographers work alongside your child's educators, never instead of them.
Your centre or school does, at all times. Our photographers never take over supervision — educators stay responsible for the children, and we work to each service's own child-safety requirements while we're on site.
Every photographer and assistant who works with your child holds a current Victorian Working With Children Check. Their names and check numbers are listed in the compliance pack your centre can ask us for.
We stop, and that's the end of it. Your consent lets us photograph your child; it doesn't override how your child feels on the day. Little ones don't always say no out loud, so we watch for it too — turning away, hiding, going quiet or reaching for their educator all count as a no. Nobody is coaxed, bribed or held in place for a photo, and a child who was happy a minute ago is allowed to change their mind.
Yes, gently, and only with your child's OK. We want your child to have fun and show their personality, so mostly we get them laughing with silly jokes and funny questions, and guide them with words and by showing them what to do. Sometimes a little hands-on help makes the difference: moving a hand into place, tidying hair, straightening a collar, wiping a face, or a high five to help a shy child settle. With babies and little ones, we may also help them onto a bike or prop, or steady them coming down from climbing equipment. We tidy hair and faces on the day, and if we missed anything, like a flyaway hair or a runny nose, light retouching is included in every gallery. We ask your child first, stay in view of their educators, and stop the moment your child says no or pulls away. We never sit a child on our lap, ask a child for a hug or a kiss, or hold a child in place for a photo.
If your centre has a no-touch policy, we work hands-off: we guide your child with words and by showing them what to do, with no help onto bikes or props, stepping in only to keep them safe. Your child is photographed as they are on the day, and when your gallery has been emailed to you and it's time to view and purchase, you can choose a retouch to tidy hair or clean a face, from $15 per gallery. Your centre chooses the approach for the whole photo day, and we'll let you know which one before we arrive.
No. We photograph in open areas within sight of your child's educators, and we never take a child into a room on their own. If a quieter spot is needed, the educators know exactly where we are.
Never. Toileting, nappy changes and changing clothes are for your child's educators only. If a child needs the toilet or has an accident, we let an educator know straight away. And we never take photos in bathrooms or change areas, or of a child who isn't fully dressed.
They listen calmly, don't question your child and never promise to keep it a secret. They write down exactly what was said and pass it on straight away to the centre's senior educator and our Child Safety Officer — and to the authorities where the law requires it.
Tell us directly. We have a documented Reportable Conduct procedure aligned to Victoria's Reportable Conduct Scheme, now overseen by the Social Services Regulator. Any concern raised by a child, family, centre or staff member is investigated within 24 hours and reported to the authorities where the law requires it.
We treat children's photographs as sensitive data, because that's what they are.
Only your family. Galleries are password-protected and the access code goes to the enrolled parent or guardian. You're free to share that code with grandparents or family if you want to — that choice is yours, not ours.
We keep your child's photos, and your access to them, so you can reorder or replace lost photos in later years, until you ask us to delete them. Purchase and invoice records are kept separately for seven years because Australian financial record-keeping law requires it — that's paperwork, not photographs, and it doesn't affect your right to have the images deleted.
Yes, whenever you like, and you don't need to give a reason. Email [email protected]. We delete them straight away, always within 24 business hours, and confirm in writing once it's done.
Never. We don't sell, licence or share family contact data — not to marketers, not to anyone. Our own retouching team edits your photos on our servers, and we use a small number of trusted suppliers for things like printing and secure hosting, only to deliver your photos.
Saying yes to photo day is not saying yes to being on our website.
Not unless you've separately told us in writing that it's fine. Photo-day consent lets us take the photo and give it to you. It doesn't give us any right to use it for advertising, social media or our website. If we ever wanted to, we'd contact you and ask — and no is a perfectly good answer.
Yes. We email you when your gallery is ready, and sometimes again about the same gallery, for example when new packages are added. Those emails mostly go to families who haven't ordered yet.
Any time. You can unsubscribe, or even delete your account or your child's photos. Just email [email protected].
Just tell us. We'll stop using the image going forward wherever we reasonably can, and confirm what's been removed.
If anything on this page raises a question — about consent, your child's images, a photo day, or something that didn't sit right — you can go straight to the person responsible. Not a form, not a queue.
Kate Picker
Child Safety Officer, Magic Photography
[email protected]
We usually reply the same business day.
Our full compliance pack — WWCC numbers, $10M public liability certificate, Child Safe Policy and privacy statement — is available on request.
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