PC gone mad when you cannot even take pictures of your own kids!!

daska

thunderbird wrote: »

Genuine question here -

With children who aren't to be photographed at school, what happens when they go round to a friends house or to a birthday party or anywhere when they don't have their parents with them? Do the parents have to tell people all the time that they mustn't take photos of them? Or do they just not go in the first place?

It depends on the situation. We were luckier than some with DSD because she moved a long way when she came to us, she had a small family who were very supportive of us and and there was no overlapping social circle so party photos weren't a problem. DSD didn't want to move back and didn't want her mum knowing where we lived so to an extent she policed her (and our) safety herself. When she wanted FaceBook we helped her set up her privacy so that only genuine friends could see anything. But her mum was always pushing for the information and we know she checked the local papers because when DSD did make the papers her mum made a big thing of telling us. We encouraged her to keep in touch with her family and existing friends but we rented a mail box for it (at her family's request so that they couldn't be coerced into passing on info). Initially it was only supervised contact and we always collected by car and drove off in the wrong direction - it might sound silly but that's how careful we had to be at first. As mum calmed down and started to sort out her drinking (she refused to deal with the other problems) contact was gradually relaxed but to this day she doesn't know where I live and DSD won't tell her.

GobbledyGook

WhiteHorse wrote: »

Check the internet - there are photographers websites that give clear statements as to the law. You could cite these as well.

Be aware though that these apply to taking photographs in public places. This is legal and is why photography websites have published them as the terror laws were being incorrectly used by some to stop people taking photographs.

Taking photographs on private property is down to the owners and their rules and regulations and they are perfectly entitled to tell you to stop. They are within their rights to ask you to leave if you do not, I do agree there should have been no threat to take someone's property though.

sassyblue

adouglasmhor wrote: »

What are they doing poncing about on stage etc,

Putting on a show for their parents that no doubt they've worked hard at and are proud of. I bet you're a barrel of laughs. :rotfl:

adouglasmhor

sassyblue wrote: »

Putting on a show for their parents that no doubt they've worked hard at and are proud of. I bet you're a barrel of laughs. :rotfl:

So that's worth putting them at risk, so long as the parents are entertained and they are proud. What sort of priorities is that?

millym

Reminds me of an incident that occured in a shopping centre last year...

http://www.theglaswegian.co.uk/glasgow-news/news/2011/10/12/boycott-braehead-campaign-leads-to-uk-wide-policy-change-for-shopping-giants-capital-102692-23483771/

PolishBigSpender

adouglasmhor wrote: »

You can't just assume everybody is going to do wrong either; you seem to be missing that point, in fact there is a presumption of innocence in British law. No laws were being broken except possibly a breach of the peace by the idiotic woman who shouted at the OP.
Perhaps as well if a child is in some situation where they need protection and anonymity perhaps on a stage in front of an audience is not the best place.

Exactly, and I suppose cases like that are really rare anyway.
I think that's completely pointless, the parents should be allowed to take pictures of their kids - and the example of the OP shows that they will regardless of what "authorities" are thinking about it, especially with the technology developing so fast now.
You just simply can't control everything, the parents might comply, but then the kids might just take some pictures at school or in a park and post that on Facebook - you just can't avoid certain situations!

PolishBigSpender

blue_monkey wrote: »

James, when we went on holiday to the US it was weird, we took pictures of the kids at the pool and at water parks - not a single parent batted an eyelid, initially I thought I might get in trouble for it but no and now we have loads of pictures as I have a waterproof camera and it came everywhere with us. No-one started screaming hysterically at other parents for taking pictures, everyone was allowed to have their happy memories by the pool.

Last year we went to Butlins and some bloke was at the pool taking photos of his daughter, there was clearly no-one else there but the lifeguards started blowing their whistles at him and told him to put the camera away. Why the difference in different countries? Are children here, safer than over there?

Same here, the parent are perfectly allowed to take pictures of their kids in playgrounds, pools, ice rinks etc.

I remember once, when I was a student, we went ice skating in England. There were no kids around and we were obviously taking pictures of one another - and the staff still banned us from doing that! I remember we were really surprised, and these were people from all over the place - Spain, Netherlands, Hungary, US, Poland...

judderman62

heretolearn wrote: »

While I accept that there are sometimes reasons for specific children to be protected for legal/personal child protection reasons, other than those important situation this is just one way our country has gone bonkers recently.

Why is it done? Because of paed o fear. Do !!!!!s have the slightest interest in these sorts of pics when they can get hundreds of thousands of explicit child abuse photos with a click of the button online? I suspect not. Has there been one single case of a paed o having a school or choir or event photo of children in their possession along with the pervy pics? Why would they even bother when if they desperately wanted normal pictures of clothed children they could pick up a Mothercare catalogue?

now don't you go bringing common sense and logic into proceedings ... this is Britain in 2012 don't you know

andygb

judderman62 wrote: »

now don't you go bringing common sense and logic into proceedings ... this is Britain in 2012 don't you know

:beer:
I know that this is an old thread, but it sums up a lot of what is wrong with society today, we are being controlled by the government/media to such an extent, that large numbers of people are afraid to do anything quite normal and acceptable, for fear that something quite random may happen.
There is an ideal phrase which describes this - "throwing the baby out with the bath water".
Are we to believe, that stalking and attacking of children in this country is widespread, and that a picture which includes a face of a child could lead to them being placed in great danger?
What are the percentages of young children in danger, and if they really are in that much danger, then they should not be going to an ordinary school.
Most incidences of child abuse occur within the home, and the perpetrators are usually direct/close relations, so let us go back to the days, when ordinary folk can capture their children's joy and achievements forever simply by a click of their finger, thus preserving a treasured momento of their offspring.

heretolearn_2

People get hysterical over nothing these days. Whatever the policy is someone will be unhappy with it.

I used to work for a charity and dealt with our publicity, including photographing events for pics to go out with press releases. Any time I photographed a child I would get parents to sign a permission/release form. Fair enough.

I went to one residents association event pre-armed (as it was a Saturday and I only wanted a quick visit) with two local children whose mum had pre-signed the release form for me. Set up some photos, took them, left. Got back to work on Monday to face an official disciplinary meeting because of complaints by several residents that I'd not been fair by only taking photos of these two children and not the others. At the same time, another set of parents put in a complaint about someone on the residents committee taking lots of photos to record the event and taking pictures of their kids - of which there were roughly 100.

You just can't win. Many parents are nuts these days.