A kindergarten in Jiangsu Province faced the backlash from parents and social media users over allegedly shooting graduation photo of children wearing underwear.
An authority of the Jiangxi Meixin Kindergarten in Wuxi City told the Shanghai-based media thepaper.com on Friday that the idea was proposed by one of the parents.
There were two teachers and six parents as volunteers on Tuesday, the day of shooting, according to a local education authority.
A boy's trousers went off during the photoshoot, local media Shengxuetuanzi reported on Thursday on its WeChat account, citing one of the volunteers. A parent sent the photo of the scene to the WeChat group due to its cuteness.
Then the volunteers took a photo of 18 boys wearing underwear, following some parents proposing the people at the scene to take a similar one. Pictures are posted online by Shengxuetuanzi, together with the report.
However, other parents thought it crossed the line, but none of them would speak out.
"Parents are just sharing the photos in their WeChat groups," said the education authority, adding that they have been investigating on how the photos were openly circulated and promised to issue a public statement later.
The news prompted a barrage of criticism on Weibo, the Twitter-like social platform in China.
"Children have privacy. They should be respected," said @Yaoxiaoxianer.
"People who circulate the photo publicly are those deserved to be blamed," said @Tannaoguabenga.
Others take it as no big deal.
"I think it is acceptable since the faces were not shown. It will be a hilarious memory," commented @Cengjingshidiyiming.
"Maybe parents just took it as being creative," speculated @lizhirenxiongTCer.
The local education bureau will ask the kindergarten to raise the awareness of online safety, according to the education authority.
