To let a stranger take photos of my kids in the park

[Shoonie]

I was walking through a park in Bath at the weekend with my three children. Coming the other way was a middle aged and very overweight man a large camera. I assumed he was a tourist but as he got closer he stopped, pointed his camera to a building and then moved it quickly to take a photo of my children. I confronted him and he claimed he was within his rights to take photos. He was very well spoken - public school educated - and was obviously well read on his subjected. I reported him to the police - and heard nothing since. I know I should have just taken his camera and ripped out the memory card but the law is a strange beast and I would have probably ended up facing charges. I have to say that it was a deeply disturbing experience.

i bet it was

Shoonie,

When I was in Hawaii, a man started recording my children. It creeped me out, and I made my discomfort very loudly known. The man left.

I have allowed strangers who appear to be tourists (giggling Japanese girls) to take pictures of dd when we are in places where tourists typically are - i.e. parks around Buckingham Palace, London Eye etc.

Like you, I would be very creeped out by a suspicious acting middle aged man 'sneaking' photos. He may be 'within his rights' (did the police confirm this was legal to you?), but I wonder how he would have responded if you asked him what he intended to do with the photos/why he was interested in taking them to begin with. Wish you had tried to take a photo of him - I bet he wouldn't have liked it!

I suspect he has taken photos before of children but perhaps has not been noticed because the parents were less observant/vigilant.

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Earlybird - that's a good idea, taking a picture of him.

How awful, I will be extra vigilant now.What a creep.

YANBU. I had this in a park once. I've no idea if it is legal or not, but two men were sitting on a bench together and one was taking photos, and they starting taking pics of dd. I shot straight over there and asked them to stop. It is very creepy and I still wonder what happened to those pics. I love the idea of taking a pic of the snapper, will do that next time!

omg! I'm freaked out reading that, and feel rather angry inside grrrrrrr!!!!!! (That's me angry)...how dare he!! What did the police say? Can you not get back in touch with them just to find out if anything came of your complaint?

Shoonie - glad you reported him to the police.

Well done on fronting him...am amazed he was so brazen tbh, claiming he had the right.

Well done on reporting it.

What did the police say?

It would freak me out too.

We were in Vienna once for a weekend when DS was about 2 and were in the hotel lift with a guy who had a camera phone - they had just come out - and he showed DS and took his pictue with the phone. Never bothered me then but I have to say that now I would be a bit freaked out.

A old man took a picture of dd1 whilst we were selling at a car-boot sale, he asked if he could take a photo of dd eating her ice cream and i thought nothing of it as i was busy trying to sell the items on our stall, i did'nt realy think about it till he had gone, he could of been anyone

I like earlybird's idea of taking his picture.

I doubt he was within his rights, especially if he was intending to use the picutures in some way (and why otherwise would a stanger be taking pictures of children he had no connection with?). I work in a communications team and when we get a photographer to take pics of children, we have to get parental permission before using the pictures in any way - in print or on the internet. It is the law AFAIK. We need parents to sign a permission slip.

The situation would have made me uneasy, too. Did you ask him exactly why he was taking pictures and what he was using them for?

she was just describing him MT.

Shoonie how awful I am glad you reported the incident - what did the police say?

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Doh!

I'm with MaloryTowers - it's clearly completely irrelevant; unless of course Shoonie meant to imply that fat men with plummy accents are invariably pervs.

And knowing that he was overweight and posh allows us to have a clearer opinion and make a better judgement, does it?

I spotted a guy filming small children in our local market, I tolda security officer who just said " oh he's at it again is he?" and that he'd have a look at the cctv later!

OFFS she was just describing the scene, if it were an incident with a car she would've wrote 'a shabby old red car with broken mirror' or something,

when people ar telling you things they do use discription, its one of the key elements of reliving something to someone

A (possible) perv was taking pics of he kid and your having a go at her for describing the guy! If I lived anywhere near Id be asking for an indepth description TBH!

exactly, and remember she has reported this to the police and that would be exactly the info they would want so she is just repeating the story.Not having a dig at fat, posh,middle aged men everywhere.

And the fat ones, Fio; don't forget the fat ones.