To think any man would know this wasn’t acceptable.

Maybe not illegal, but weird in the extreme. As others have said, you don't need much for AI to work with. OP was correct to challenge. Not appropriate.

It doesn't matter that it's not illegal.....its just wrong and not OK
I don't want it to be illegal....there are justifiable reasons for taking photos of strangers in public including kids. I will defend anyone who takes a photo of teens behaving anti-socially and passes it on to the relevant authority. Or anyone who accidentally catches another family in the background or foreground of their intended shot.

But no - walking up to a group and taking photos without asking because of what they are wearing is not OK.

Well done OP. It is possible to create explicit images and videos with AI and it only requires a couple of photos of someone's face, the software is easy to access, it doesn't even require the darkweb. It is creepy and depressing. I would ask anyone I didn't know to not take photos of dc and delete any pictures

Totally willing to look like a prat if it turns out they have a legitimate reason.

If it’s not illegal it will be legitimate.

You can't go around deleting stuff from people's phones, thank goodness we're not in some kind of police state

Like it or not the man hasn't done anything illegal based on the OPs telling of what happened

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-68826423.amp

But it's fine coz it's not illegal apparently.

We should be kicking up more of a stink about incidents like this. All sorts can be done with pictures and video footage now.

Damn right I'd be like OP and challenge any person filming my daughter and her friends. Totally willing to look like a prat if it turns out they have a legitimate reason. And if they don't, while they are apparently protected by law to do it anyway I'm also protected by law if I loudly and publicly call them out on their fucking creepy actions.

I saw a guy pretending to be taking a call on his phone but taking photos of children in a local park

When my partner told me I decided to go over but he left

I then searched online and found out that it's not an offence!

I hope you/security deleted from his deleted folder on his phone otherwise he still has them.

Yup

Doesn’t mean what he was doing was right or reasonable.

It’s not. At all. I don’t know where people get this idea from.

Edit: apologies, I misread your post and thought you were stating that it was illegal.

The problem with such a law is it would make all photography in a public place effectively illegal, including all photojournalism, street photography and event photography. Oh and surveillance cameras, even Ring doorbells.

It should be illegal to take photos of children without consent of parents.

No, it's not. Although a food court would be private, not public.

That was my first thought too @Shade17 , the most potentially illegal act here was the security guard taking the man's phone. The man didn't break any law, however I think you are right OP to challenge him. Personally i feel it should be illegal without consent but I wonder will it ever be. The massively powerful social media and tech companies promote this BS. It blows my mind that people can record others using their glasses now thanks to Meta (possibly others too).

I mean, the fact he was so open about it says to me if he had nefarious intent he’s a very shit paedophile.
would you have reacted the same to a womsn doing the same thing?

Id view that as harassment and peeping. Both illegal.

Everyone has the right to ask, or even tell asomeone to do something. They just don’t have the right to compel you to do it.

I might not be happy with it but there is nothing I could do other than ask him to delete them. And he could refuse. And that would be that.

This is completely incorrect. There is absolutely no law against photography in a public place. How on Earth do you think street photographers, photojournalists, paps etc operate? Model releases are about using image rights, nothing to do with the lawfulness of taking photographs.

The OP’s child was photographed in a cinema, and the cinema are free to enforce their own photography policy (as many venues do). But again, this is just a matter of civil law and contracts, nothing to do with illegality.

Good point ... it is often men doing this. Creepy fuckers

God, men just get worse and worse don't they. It never stops. And it never will.

YANBU @Mummytoswiftie25

It isn't for me to police people going about their lawful business. There are many things people do that are legal to which I might object on a personal level - that doesn't give me the right to stop them.

///

Whilst you may not be possible for you to actually stop them you have do have a right to challenge them and ask them to stop providing you do so in a law abiding way

I agree, and I’m not convinced the story happened as described tbf.

There was thread I read about posters spouting supposed law earlier, this is an absolute prime example

Of course it's not, it's the total opposite, anyone can take photos of anything in public places

Anyone with a brain would realize that couldn't possibly be true 😁

Do you never take a photo outside?