Filming of minors without parental permission

Thriftkitten

Hi, I am hoping someone could see their way to helping me out as at the moment I'm not thinking straight!!:mad:
This evening a friend of mine on facebook congratulated me the lovely film footage of my daughter and her friend playing on the beach........
None the wiser I asked her what she meant, to which she replied that my 9 yr old daughter and 5 yr old friend had been filmed on the beach playing my the sea and it was being used as part of video footage advertising a hotel here in Cornwall.
As my daughter and friend are so young they have NEVER been to the beach alone and having her school uniform on it must have been last year on an occasion where we had walked the dogss across the beach after school, Myself(her parent and my friend who is the mother or the 5yr old) were NOT in this footage, only zoomed in footage of the 2 kids, rougly around 10-15 seconds long.
I am left feeling very unhappy that I was NOT approached by whoever took this footage with an advert for a hotel here in the town where we live. This is broadcast for all entire to view without my permission, it's not like it was a long range shot of lots of people, its 2 minors up close footage without my permission.
I do not have any photo's or video's of my kids on the internet and nor do I want them.
Could someone tell me where I stand on this as I want to approach the hotel tomorrow but need to know where I stand without my temper getting the better of me. Thanks..

arbroath_lass

As far as I'm aware you can be filmed or photographed at any time in a public place. HOWEVER, I'd contact the hotel politely and ask them to remove your children from the ad - see what they say first.

elsien

There's no law against filming in a public place, regardless as to whether it is children or adults (unless it's indecent). So the filming itself you probably can't do anything about. When you think about it, every time there's a piece on the news about snow, heat waves or whatever, there's alway footage of kids having a good time.
Not sure on where you stand on the footage being used in an advert though.

JodyBPM

I was under the impression like the pp that you could be filmed without permisson in a public place, but I'm not 100% sure of that.

Unless there is a really good reason why you don't want your dd's image used (and I accept that there are a few genuine good reasons for this) then I'd probably just leave it. It's probably not worth the hassle and stress of trying to persue it. What outcome would you actually want?

It would have been polite for them to ask your permission, but if it was me, my gut instinct would be to be proud rather than angry!

Thriftkitten

JodyBPM wrote: »

I was under the impression like the pp that you could be filmed without permisson in a public place, but I'm not 100% sure of that.

Unless there is a really good reason why you don't want your dd's image used (and I accept that there are a few genuine good reasons for this) then I'd probably just leave it. It's probably not worth the hassle and stress of trying to persue it. What outcome would you actually want?

It would have been polite for them to ask your permission, but if it was me, my gut instinct would be to be proud rather than angry!

it is film footage cropped to just the 2 children playing,
As far as outcome I want it removed, and an apology, Both parents were there with the kids and so there was no reason to bypass requesting permission if they intended to use it to make a video to boost their hotel ratings.

mildred1978

Thriftkitten wrote: »

it is film footage cropped to just the 2 children playing,
As far as outcome I want it removed, and an apology, Both parents were there with the kids and so there was no reason to bypass requesting permission if they intended to use it to make a video to boost their hotel ratings.

There was no legal need to ask for permission!

Spendless

Can the children be identified by what school they go to by the footage? If they can, I would say this in your complaint.

JodyBPM

Thriftkitten wrote: »

it is film footage cropped to just the 2 children playing,
As far as outcome I want it removed, and an apology, Both parents were there with the kids and so there was no reason to bypass requesting permission if they intended to use it to make a video to boost their hotel ratings.

Can I ask why you want it removed?

Do you have genuine reasons that mean that you don't want your/your dd's general location potentially made available, or are you just being a bit precious because they didn't ask permission and its for an advert? If they had have asked permission for your daughter to be a model, would you have refused, and if so why?

I'm genuinely curious as to why its such a big deal. I'm always delighted when someone asks one of mine to model for a brochure or have the photo in the local paper etc.

kingfisherblue

I wouldn't want my kids pictures on the internet either - I haven't allowed it at school, so I wouldn't expect a hotel to use my children as footage without my permission for their own advertising purposes. As the children were accompanied by adults, and were not in hotel grounds (and presumably have no links with the hotel concerned), I would politely request that the hotel remove the footage - ask to speak to the manager, don't just speak to whoever answers the telephone. If they agree, check that it is removed within a reasonable time.

If they don't agree, I would possibly seek legal advice. You might have a legal helpline on your house insurance that you can ring for information on the legalities of the situation.

Bluemeanie_2

JodyBPM wrote: »

I was under the impression like the pp that you could be filmed without permisson in a public place, but I'm not 100% sure of that.

Unless there is a really good reason why you don't want your dd's image used (and I accept that there are a few genuine good reasons for this) then I'd probably just leave it. It's probably not worth the hassle and stress of trying to persue it. What outcome would you actually want?

It would have been polite for them to ask your permission, but if it was me, my gut instinct would be to be proud rather than angry!

This is true,

GobbledyGook

There's no need to get permission to take photographs or film in public places, but I'm not sure about using the film/photographs for advertising purposes. If you could just use whatever you wanted then there would be no need for image release forms.

Even if it's legal (which I'm not sure of) it's bad practise by the hotel (or the company they asked to create the advertising video) not to ask permission. Particularly with the children being in school uniform. In this day and age they should realise that is not likely to go down well with parents who haven't been asked, or even informed.