Man may have photos of DS on tube

[AcrossTheOcean]

Hi all,

On the tube the other day a man who seemed odd to me pointed his phone at my young DS and I thought he may have been taking photos or video 😟

I started to try to get his attention saying excuse me but then just ended up trying to position myself between his phone and my DS, somewhat unsuccessfully. An older woman a couple seats down looked on with concern but didn't say anything.

Just wondering what other mums would have done?

If you take a photograph in a crowd and there happen to be children in it, does that also show evil intent?

The logical conclusion to your posts would be to assume that every man who looks at a child is potentially a pedophile.

I suppose we could just take a blunt stick and blind them all!

Or we could live our lives without fearing the man with a camera! Or trying to make a member of a camera club feel immoral for simply liking to take photographs.

I also think previous posters are missing the point. If this man was taking footage of the op's child, just because the child was in a public place and fully clothed doesn't mean it might not have been cause for concern. As @TeasndToast has said there are some horrible people in the world who have horrible tastes and what they may do with seemingly innocuous photos would make you feel sorry for the state of the world

Unfortunately OP there really is nothing you can do other than block his view and throw a few sharp looks his way. I think instinct and common sense is always the key in these situations.

No Piglet I think the point was that whilst there are some horrible people in the world you can't live your life assuming that anyone with a camera is one of them.

I would assume he was taking a selfie...

Although i did once get stopped in Primark by a Chinese lady who asked to take a photo of my one year old (obviously as he's so beautiful).

I also once had a Japanese lady ask my husband to take a photograph of her with ME (beautiful lady )

But he could probably quite easily get hold of cctv footage showing pretty much the same thing. Or doesn’t it matter if you don’t know about it? Which you don’t, because you have no idea what he will do with those photos even if he did take them.

@StopMakingItDifficult

I assume the OP thinks he was compiling some kind of ‘wank bank’.

This article sets out a photographer's rights and responsibilities. You'll see with regards to children that the advice is to "play it safe" in order to avoid confrontation but there is no obligation.

rights&responsibilities

Mrshappy so having a camera is now an arrestable offence? It's not the "professional" cameras that you have to worry about, it's the hidden ones.

I would have done absolutely nothing.

Plus, who's to say he wasn't trying to get a signal or a better look at his screen?

Life's too short to worry about things like this.

I get that. I’m just baffled why you would create a wank bank of things that are easily viewable without having to risk exposing yourself as a pervert by taking your own pictures. Doing it on a crowded train in front of the mother makes it even more bonkers.

I had an odd experience with a man who sat opposite me on a train, he started off normally enough smiling and waving at DD (she was about 10 months old). All fine.

Then, he suddenly took out his phone and took her photo twice, before showing the photos on the screen to her, trying to catch her interest. Before I could say anything (I was just going to say ‘please don’t take her photo’), it was like a penny dropped for him as to how what he’d done could look, and he looked horrified, showed me he’d deleted the pictures (it was a camera phone circa 2007 by the looks of it) and said his grandkids loved taking pictures of themselves on his phone etc etc. I did think, it’s ok being a friendly man on a train but it’s probably best you don’t just start taking pictures of people’s kids!

it is not illegal to take pictures in public places

Is the tube "a public place" ? It's certainly covered by a load of by-laws.

A picture of my child cannot hurt my child! My daughters picture has been in and national newspapers (for positive reasons)as well as her schools d university websites. My sons picture is still in the prospectus for his junior school and is on his secondary school website.
I work in a school, I do a lot of stuff to do with safeguarding but I simply will not get worked up about a “he may have a picture of my child” situation.
My husband has a “professional” camera and kit which he mainly used for shots of architecture, landscapes and wildlife, he very occasionally took a picture of me or our children but these days he rarely takes his camera out because of the ridiculous reactions of some people to whom “man with camera pointing in my general direction(probably zoomed in on the interesting building behind)” means “dangerous predator”. Our last two holidays the camera has stayed at home because even when it is clearly pointed at our children he has had an aggressive “you shouldn’t be using that in a public place”.

I wouldn't do a thing. He was probably taking a selfie.

Is the tube "a public place" ? It's certainly covered by a load of by-laws. As are all town centres. And what else would it be... it's public transport!

I would have done precisely nothing .

My son is in a year where a parent has insisted on no photos. Therefore, days out, a weeks holiday, the teachers do not take photos. A bit galling when you have coughed up a lot of money for the trip and the school are not allowed to share photos with other parents. But thems the breaks.

StopMakingItDifficult - Sorry I got distracted and didn’t finish of what I was going to say, he was arrested because he hit the person who tried to take his camera away from him, I was told by the police that when the camera was “checked” he had pictures of other little boys and girls which he was also arrested and charged for, they wouldn’t give me any further information so I can only guess there may have been “indecent images” on his camera, my son is all I have and I felt that I didn’t protect him that day.

I know it’s the people with the hidden cameras that are the ones to look out for, this guy was doing it so blatant, I do not judge people by the way they look but he didn’t look “right”

welsh They may well have a very valid reason for that.

Oh my god.

Make sure you keep a paper bag on your DS's head any time he is in public. Or snapped in a pic on social media.

Stop them pesky Peedos.

I wouldn't have done anything.

Get a grip.

You have no reasonable expectations of privacy in a public space. People take photos.

He could have been doing anything: a selfie, taking a photo of an advert on the tube (I've done that before), a photo of an item of clothing someone was wearing, a FB live video of his journey for whatever reason, just a random shot to upload onto social media as part of his day...