Unauthorized Sharing of Teacher Profile Pictures and Criticism of Appearance Raises Concerns About Violation of Teacher Rights

A controversy regarding the violation of teacher rights has emerged following reports of a parent unauthorizedly sharing a homeroom teacher's KakaoTalk profile picture in a family group chat and commenting on the teacher's appearance.

According to a social media post introducing the 'Parent Violation of Teacher Rights Complaint Casebook' released on the 1st, a teacher revealed an unpleasant experience of having their profile picture captured by a parent and subjected to assessment of appearance in a family group chat.

Teacher A, who is a sixth-grade homeroom teacher, shared their mobile phone number with parents for smooth communication and used a neat photo of themselves in a dress taken at a studio as their profile picture.

However, one day, a female student from the class showed her relatives’ group chat after school and mentioned, "My relatives praised the teacher," revealing that her father had captured Teacher A's profile picture and shared it among relatives.

In the group chat, comments about A’s appearance included remarks like "Young," "Pretty face," and "Good figure."

A expressed, "Although there were no bad comments, I felt extremely uncomfortable that my personal photo was circulating among people I don't even know and being evaluated."

The fact that my personal photo was circulating among people I don’t even know was extremely uncomfortable.

Unauthorized Sharing of Teacher Personal Information and Repeated Cases of Rights Violation

This issue is not limited to Teacher A. Another teacher, B, also shared a similar experience.

B, who is also a sixth-grade homeroom teacher, publicly shared their phone number for communication with parents and used a neat photo taken during university as their profile picture.

However, when a student mentioned, "There was talk about the teacher in our family group chat," they discovered that the student's father had captured B's profile picture and shared it in the family group chat with the description "Our daughter’s homeroom teacher."

The group chat contained discussions among relatives evaluating B’s appearance.

B expressed, "I felt like throwing up knowing that unknown men were holding a review session using my photo."

Reports indicate that it is not uncommon for parents to discuss and evaluate teachers' appearances in group chats within the educational environment.

As a result, many teachers are hesitant to even take graduation album photos.

According to a survey conducted by the Seoul Teachers’ Union involving 8,122 teachers nationwide, 70.6% responded that they have felt uneasy about pictures included in the graduation album (41.2% very much agree, 29.4% agree).

There were also 7.6% (621 individuals) who responded that they had directly experienced harm related to graduation albums.

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