Law on taking a photo in which your child happens to be naked?

[Karstill]

I've looked at CSA / indecent images laws obviously, but they don't explicitly cover this.

Example scenario, your 2 yr old and the dog are playing in the (private) garden. It's hot and he's naked because you're in the middle of potty training. You take a photo of child throwing ball for dog. Child just happens to be naked.
You keep the photo for yourself and don't share it online obviously! But you don't want to delete it because your child looks so happy in it and it's a memory of a great day.
Have you committed an offence? If so would the police apply any exemptions because this image is only possessed by the parents and is innocent?

I haven't actually got a naked photo of my own children, but I definitely have a printed photo of myself from the 80s! I've also seen naked photos of a friend's kids, shown to me on her phone. Am I a criminal?

I'm in Scotland if relevant, but actually I think this is a reserved matter so it should be the same throughout the UK.

What? I have loads of photos of my kids naked. Of course it isn’t

This has never entered my head! We have lots of beach photos with our kids running around naked when they were little! I wouldn’t put them on Facebook, to be honest, that’s all.

It hadn't entered my head either, until I read another thread where everyone was horrified at the suggestion OP take a photo of her child's bum. Apparently this is criminal?

I've looked at CSA / indecent images laws obviously

It's not obvious at all.

Why are you looking into this? What exactly is your concern?

It's highly unusual op. And odd tbh.

how ridiculous to think you are a criminal over that .

No, it's not a crime. There are photos of us in the bath etc from when we were young children.

I sometimes wonder where the innocence has gone.

You have to be very careful nowadays because technology has changed the situation. It’s no longer just a printed photo in your album at home. Your phone could be stolen, or your iPad or laptop. Plus any photo you take on your phone is backed up on the cloud. If for example your Apple password gets hacked, the person has access to your photos. This has happened to celebs before, eg the nude pics of Jennifer Lawrence which were spread everywhere a few years ago. I don’t photograph my child naked for this reason, it’s too easy for digital photos to get leaked.

I've looked at CSA / indecent images laws obviously, but they don't explicitly cover this. who DOES this?

Do you have a concern your child is being abused?

Yeah why are you concerned OP?

No it’s not an offence and neither would it be an offence to send it to relatives, get it printed etc. The photograph is clearly not sexual in nature and would not be considered indecent therefore no offence.

You just have to consider the cover art of Nevermind to figure out that non-sexual images of naked children are not illegal.

I never take photos of my babies/kids without at least a nappy or swimsuit. It does mean there just aren’t any cute baby bath photos. But like PPs, I think technology has changed things too much. You lose control of an image the moment you send it to someone or save it in the cloud.

Okay calm down FFS. I'm asking because I didn't know, obviously. I was surprised by the other thread, so I looked up the law. That's a perfectly normal thing to do.

You know the man who was in the image sued as an adult? I don’t know what the outcome was.

Dismissed then revived again December 2023

Are you joking op?

It's not normal, it's a really strange thing to enter your head, let alone research.

It is normal to look up the law. My daughter posted a photo of her son ( age 7) topless..and she was told she was breaking the law..
( also to the person that said all photos go to the cloud.. they don't if you don't have it or send them).

It’s really not normal. Why is your head automatically heading in that direction. Very suspect.

No of course its not a crime.I Have pictures of my sons age 2 in paddling pool naked.
How would anyone know anyway?
Unless you posted it on a public forum and someone copied it for nefarious reasons

It is normal to look up the law. My daughter posted a photo of her son ( age 7) topless..and she was told she was breaking the law

Not by anyone remotely connected to the law though. Surely she just laughed?

I remember in the 90s a family friend had some innocent pictures of her kids in the bath developed and when she picked them up they'd been stickered and she was asked not to bring graphic (ie: visible genitalia) pictures to be developed there again as it put the staff in a difficult position.

DH used to work in repairs for a big tech company and sadly they had to report things they found on devices that had been brought into be fixed. Part of checking that everything has worked in some scenarios eg: transfer to a new device is to fast scroll the camera roll from top to bottom to check there's no blank gaps. Some turned out to be innocent, some less so. I would never take pictures of a totally naked child for that reason.

Just to clarify above I don't mean sadly they had to report things, I mean sadly they sometimes found things worthy of being reported!

The OP looked up the law because posters on another thread said it was illegal. Why is it strange to check something out if you think others are wrong?

No idea what the law is on it, but nobody should be taking pictures of naked children.

they also shouldn’t be in the garden naked, or on the beach naked etc.

you wouldn’t be in your own garden naked or on the beach, why is a child any different?

ive never allowed my children to be naked outdoors or in front of people that don’t live with us.