To think a magazine photographer should ask the parents if they mind their child being photographed?

[Picturesinthefirelight]

This is hypothetical really because the parents are both quite flattered & it's a lovely picture

I know it's not illegal to take a picture if a child in a public place but surely if you take a pretty close up photo of two boys playing football to illustrate an article about grass roots it's good practice to ask first.

I personally think they're trying to avoid model fees (the boys are very photogenic). It's a national magazine given out for free in gyms & sports centres I think.

Fees aside they should be asking parents of anyone under 18 to sign model release forms if they are the focus of the image. Obviously background crowds and such can't be avoided but if you're purposefully asking a picture of an unassuming indivual for publication permission really ought to be sought, I'd rap the knuckles of any of my photographers who didn't ask first.

I was with my 2 DCs playing at a local park one day and there was a bloke taking general photos of the kids on the play equipment. I was a bit but he then went round all the parents in the play area and explained he was from the local paper (had ID) which was doing a piece on a local campaign to do the place up, and was it OK to photograph our children. If he hadn't come over I would have approached him in the first instance, and then rung the police if not satisfied. This seemed a very reasonable approach from him though.

Were the boys playing football by themselves in a park or was it at a football training session? Reason I ask is that my dc are frequently photographed as part of sports events sometimes competing sometimes training but I have signed a general form to ok it. If the parents signed something like that there would be no need for it to be asked specifically in this instance.

Not illegal, but commercial exploitation of the image without permission is a breach of the children's privacy rights. Very cheeky, I think.

What on earth would you have said to the police?

Neither.

It was outside a football ground on match day. So they wernt inside the stadium but they were on club property (the mag has nothing to do with the club though) they were having a kickabout before going inside the ground.

As far as I'm aware, it's not illegal, especially for editorial purposes. It is illegal if there is a commercial angle (e.g. the boys are made to look they're endorsing the brand of football or even the gym) or perhaps if there's some sort of libellous thing going on. But this sounds like neither!

Morally, of course they should ask, and offer payment too.

Thats a funny one but it is probably in the club rules that they are allowed to take photos and attending is acceptance of that. The photographer should have cleared taking any photos with the club though so it might be worth checking with them.

Oddly enough since then one of the boys has been signed by the club academy.

The parents had no idea the photo had been taken.