To be cross that someone was videoing all the kids in a public swimming pool?

[mumwithatum]

Today I took my kids swimming to a public session. There are signs up everywhere saying no cameras / photographing etc.
A parent was stood at the side of the pool videoing their child with their granddad in the pool. However they were on one side of the pool and the child on the other and from the way that she was moving the phone and the length of time it was for she was clearly getting all of the people in the pool in the shot too. They were very blatant about it and did it several times in front of the lifeguard with nothing said. In the end I said to the lifeguard is that ok then and it stopped. AIBU to think it's not ok to do that as it's perfectly acceptable on holiday abroad. My only argument is that I fully expect people to take pics on holiday with the main focus being their family, but I don't expect it in a place that clearly says it's not ok and the focus appears to be everyone in the pool.

NU at all, if it were me, their camera would be taking a little swim.

NU. I’d be pissed off too.

I think you should unclench. But I know it’s a widely held belief these days that people are trying to video children in their swimsuits to sell on d’internet to evil men.

Yanbu, I confronted someone in the changing rooms of our local pool today for taking photos, I was getting my little girl changed and felt really uncomfortable (I think they were taking selfies but not certain) I asked him to stop and he refused at first then threw his phone into his locker and stomped off.

Why do people feel the need to video and photograph everything, just enjoy the moment.

What possible harm can there be in videoing children enjoying themselves in a swimming pool?! Absolutely ridiculous.

I hate not being able to take pictures of my LO swimming.

Wouldn't bother me, it would probably only register with me why are they allowed and i'm not

I really wouldn't be bothered by this at all. In fact, I probably wouldn't even have noticed.

Meh.

I wouldn't be bothered by this. I would if it was in the changing rooms.

It wouldn't bother me in the slightest

I honestly can't get bothered about this. What were you afraid was going to happen?

I fully appreciate the need to protect children but a blanket ban is ridiculous. My Mum had her camera taken off her (2 decades ago) for filming her 3 and 5 year old grandchildren swimming . We are also affiliated to a sport which involves children from 3 up to adults over 60 and beyond. In some cases there is a blanket ban on videoing children, in others if you can provide ID and register you can film. No easy answer, what a sad world we live in

I'd be bothered about it, I would be very 😡 about being photographed in a swimming pool as an adult swimmer. Never mind the child safeguarding angle.Especially if there were explicit warnings everywhere.

Thanks everyone. It appears there are arguments for both sides which is what I also thought afterwards (and felt a bit bad about).
It was weird - it wasn't just a quick film of the whole pool so that you can show family and friends how far little darling could swim, it was filming for long periods of time over several occasions. However I think my initial reaction wasn't so much that I thought the footage would be used for nefarious reasons but more the fact that if you are stood next to a sign that says not too and you are being so blatant about it too that the pool staff should enforce their own rules.

I’ve seen a mum videoing her kid at my kids swimming lessons. Told the duty manager, he told her to stop and waiting with her to delete it. YANBU.

I’ve also seen a woman FaceTiming her kids lesson to someone.

This wouldn’t bother me at all. They were clearly a family recording a nice moment. Nothing odd intended. I think we’re all becoming far too worried about this sort of stuff. Should no one ever take a photo of their kids on the beach because they might inadvertently get a photo of another kid in a swimsuit somewhere? Some of the most precious photos I have of my now 15 year old dd are of her at the local open air padding pool splashing about as young toddler - and yep there are tons of other kids in the background.

I personally think it's a stupid rule anyway. Lots of holiday places like Center Parcs let you take photos and videos in the pool. My daughter had her first swim there and I was over the moon to be able to get a photo of it.

What do you think will happen? It is no different to going to the beach and you can't stop people taking photos there. I am safeguarding lead trained and I don't see it as a safeguarding issue. No more than walking down the street and someone taking a picture of you. 99.9% of the population just want a picture of their family. I have taken photos and then cropped all the strangers out. Isn't that normal?

Cameras and phones are banned in our pool and changing village, as well, and I'm fine with it.
If there's notices up saying no phones/cameras allowed then people should stick to it. It's not hard to go without photos for an hour or so, surely.

I don't like that cameras are banned in UK swimming pools. It stops me filming DD. Why should I care if anyone else films her swimming? Even if they're perverts who post the video online, how would that harm her? It's just video of a primary-aged girl swimming.

Luckily for school annual gala in the public pool, the pool makes an exception and lets us take cameras in. (I think we have to sign a form that says we won't post on social media, I don't anyway.)

If they wanted a quick video or something of their child swimming then the adult with the child in the pool could have come over closer to the camera woman and they could have done something only with their child.
That would be common sense.

Sadly, common sense isn't that common and as long as people insist on videoing whole pools of people (more often than not for video clips to show on social media) then it's entirely understandable why pools will say no photos or videos.

YANBU, I took videos of DDs first swim, we asked the lifeguard if it was okay and I made sure nobody but DD and DP were in shot as who wants some randomers in the photo anyway - if it had been busy this would have been harder and probably would have given up and took a photo of her in her swim suit at the side of the pool. Definitely would not have taken a video from the other side of the room.

YABU.

It's someone filming their child.

They could film exactly the same scene on the beach or in a splash park.

People just think because it's inside a building they can stop someone taking a photo.

I'm happy to be corrected but afaik it's not illegal to photograph or film anywhere. It's just policy in some places?

@firesuit Even if they're perverts who post the video online, how would that harm her? It's just video of a primary-aged girl swimming.

That's a highly unlikely scenario but you'd seriously be happy with a paedophile getting off to a video of your child?

So just to provide a little more clarity... we are not talking about someone videoing their kid and my kid happens to swim across in the background although that probably happened to. We are to talking about someone filming the front left side of a swimming pool whilst their daughter is swimming in the back right so nowhere near where her child is. And not just once repeatedly filming her daughter and then all of the areas of the pool that her daughter wasn't too, so the focus of her film wasn't always her daughter but other children/ adults. Is that really not a little weird?