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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think people should stop taking photos

139 replies

Lexijayde44 · 21/04/2020 08:10

I'm not saying there are not some idiots hanging about in groups being stupid. By all means they deserve the police dining them etc etc. What I'm not comfortable with is locals taking pictures of other locals and putting them on Facebook page to tell the other locals what they are doing.

New rules do say you can sit on a bench for a quick rest. Theres no crime eating something whilst outdoors etc.

A family two parents and three kids were sat on a picnic table. nowhere near anyone. The kids were eating crisps. Someone photographed them. Put them on Facebook. They are now getting called all the names!

Firstly are we allowed to take pictures of other peoples kids now? I find it weird and inappropriate.

Secondly is it ok to throw People to the lions on Facebook?

Thirdly who are we to judge without facts? There is no crime in a five minute stop on a long walk. You can have a snack on you. How does anyone know the ins and outs of a person's health? I take snacks out with me because when my blood sugar levels drop I feel awful pretty quickly. I'm anemic and my energy is really poor.

I've seen people taking photos of so many different things in this crises. If you would t like someone taking pictures of your family and especially your children I would like to think you wouldnt do it to someone else!

OP posts:
Mumofaboyandmanbaby · 21/04/2020 12:19

I pushed my son up a giant hill on his bike and needed a rest at the top! Not near anyone and to be fair if you came past you may have thought I was sunbathing but I was lying down getting the energy to make the 10 minute walk home because I didn't realise I was overdoing it at the time! If anyone took a picture it would look bad. Think people should mind their own business... In other news that was my first and last 'excersise' of the lockdown!

carriebreadshaw · 21/04/2020 12:30

It's dangerous for people who for a whole host of reasons might not want their or their children's location to be known. Totally irresponsible

Lexilooo · 21/04/2020 12:33

Photos aren't only being taken for nefarious reasons.

A friend of mine was verbally attacked in the street the other day, threatened and put in fear for his safety because he took a photo of a tree that looked particularly beautiful because of its blossom.

mbosnz · 21/04/2020 12:37

I think it would be nice if we all tried a little harder to adhere to what is still the golden rule - treat others as we wish ourselves to be treated.

LolaSmiles · 21/04/2020 12:37

I think it's a shitty thing to do if people are taking photos of people and shaming them on social media.

Then again I also think MN highlights there's a substantial minority of piss takers who will twist the rules to justify whatever it is they're doing. Ultimately there's no reasoning with selfish people and those who think they're more special than everyone else, and there's no reason to stoop so low as to shame on social media.

If they aren't doing anything wrong then perfectly reasonable people are being vilified for no reason.
If they are ignoring the lockdown then they didn't give a damn to start with and won't suddenly become reasonable and considerate human beings because of some shaming on social media.

Forgivenandsetfree · 21/04/2020 12:40

It's actually disgraceful, taking pictures of anyone, especially children, you don't know the backlash you can cause by posting that picture. You don't know whether someone may search for that family and decide to out a brick through the window or something equally as stupid, so you've just put children in immediate harm's way.
Fair enough, if you feel you MUST report people to the police for perceived 'flounting of the rules' but why the hell would you out it online? Why does anyone else have to see these pictures? Seriously, what possible reason would someone do that except to wind others up...it's just ugly.

Springersrock · 21/04/2020 12:45

I feel bad for people living near the sea. It's a lovely walk and as long as you are walking and keeping away from people it should t be a crime to enjoy the waves and the view as you walk along

I live opposite the beach and have always walked my dog on it. Her recall is fine and she never approaches anyone so I used to take her down there, let her off her lead and she’d play with her ball or swim in the sea. It was a great way to knacker her out and as it’s a wide open space it’s easy to avoid other people. I really miss it

There had been so many name and shame photos posted of people walking on the beach that I had avoided it. It shouldn’t be that way, I’m not doing anything wrong or flouting guidelines or breaking laws but having seen the pile ons in the comments of these posts, I’ve stayed away. At one point our even local police were shooing everyone off the beach, even if it was just a lone dog walker minding their own business, although they have stopped that now.

There does seem to be a bit of a backlash against people posting these kind of photos now though. As I said up thread, my daughter was shamed when doing absolutely nothing wrong, and although there was the predictable frothing/fine her/arrest the parents, the majority of the replies were calling out the person for posting it in the first place. The group admin deleted it in the end

Someone posted a photo of a queue of traffic at traffic lights, stating that he’d seen an increase in car traffic and he estimated that at least 25% were non-essential journeys. I mean, how can he possibly know? He’s just making shit up

I can see the beach from my house, I can see the car park isn’t full of cars (because it was closed when the lock down came into force) yet people are posting that ‘it’s like a normal summer weekend’. People are posting that the beach is packed with picnickers yet I can see there are very few people on the beach - even on the Easter weekend there weren’t many people about. People are posting that we are overrun with holiday makers yet all the hotels/holiday parks and camp sites are closed - what they are seeing is a very kind holiday park owner allowing NHS staff to stay on their site free of charge if they want to isolate away from home. An ICU nurse staying there had her car tyres slashed because of numpties posting shite like this.

The police are regularly posting updates on their FB page refuting these claims - that they’re not seeing packed beaches, or tonnes of holiday makers, or busy town centres and that if people see something they think breaks the rules then fill in the online form and report it. Stop posting this shite on social media

MsTSwift · 21/04/2020 12:48

Facebook is like the modern equivalent of the stocks. Burn the witch! This type of personality has always lived amongst us and pops up in every period of history (witch accusers, Stasi informants, telling nazis their neighbours harbouring Jews). For all my faults I am very glad I am not one of them.

Hingeandbracket · 21/04/2020 12:48

For the record, whilst the consensus is that photographs in a public place are legal, I wholeheartedly disapprove of anyone taking photographs of children that do not belong to them! There is surely come case law on this somewhere.

I disagree - I think on balance the law has it right. I don't approve of social media pitchfork mobs, but I don't want to be prevented from photographing a particular scene because there are kids there.

On the whole I think permitting photos of anything/anyone in a public place is actually less intrusive overall.

There are a few YouTube clips of Police and PCSOs trying to claim it's illegal to photograph them in public. I prefer the world in which Police and public (and kids) can be pictured on the whole.

Hingeandbracket · 21/04/2020 12:50

BTW, pretty soon the "name and shame" twats are going to stuggle - if everyone's wearing masks.

Emmapeeler1 · 21/04/2020 12:52

Facebook is like the modern equivalent of the stocks. Burn the witch! This type of personality has always lived amongst us and pops up in every period of history (witch accusers, Stasi informants, telling nazis their neighbours harbouring Jews). For all my faults I am very glad I am not one of them.

I agree. And we wonder how events like the holocaust came about.

T0tallyFuckedUpFamily · 21/04/2020 12:59

I’m one of the posters who would have criticised people in the beginning, and I’ll own that, but then I had a think about it. My youngest and I now go out for walks (24yr old) and if you saw use sitting in the local graveyard while she has a snack and a drink, you’d probably count me as being selfish. What you wouldn’t know, is that my daughter has SN and underlying health conditions. She sometimes needs a rest and a snack to keep her energy levels up.

We are also in the graveyard because we’re visiting my husband and tidying the grave of a gentleman whose wife is in hospital with coronavirus, because she used to put fresh flowers on it every single day. It gives her one less thing to be distressed about.

If you saw a photo of us, you’d probably judge us, without understanding who we are and why we’re doing such things. What you don’t see, is the fact that my youngest is vulnerable, we don’t go to shops, parks or anywhere else we might pick up the virus.

MsTSwift · 21/04/2020 13:02

Well I wouldn’t judge you because I’m not a judgey snitchy weirdo. I hope you have rethought your initial stance though - the people you were judging almost certainly all had reasons just like you do

Mutedgrey · 21/04/2020 13:02

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/18/duty-or-score-settling-rights-and-wrongs-of-corona-shaming

More on it.
It’s a crappy thing to do. It achieves absolutely nothing. Well, nothing positive.
No one who wants to contribute positively to this situation - even if that is to help educate others who aren’t sticking to guidelines - thinks taking pictures and putting them on FB is helpful.

T0tallyFuckedUpFamily · 21/04/2020 13:04

Well I wouldn’t judge you because I’m not a judgey snitchy weirdo. I hope you have rethought your initial stance though - the people you were judging almost certainly all had reasons just like you do

I’ve already acknowledged that I was wrong. Maybe you should actually take a look at your own hypocrisy of judging me, without reading my comments fully. The irony. Grin

Alsohuman · 21/04/2020 13:04

As I returned from my dog walk last night I saw a couple on a bench in the park watching the sun go down and eating fish and chips. I was deeply envious of that simple pleasure. We were the only three people in a massive park, it mystifies me that anyone would object to it.

MsTSwift · 21/04/2020 13:06

Ha yes I guess I do judge snitchy weirdos. They totally deserve it though.

T0tallyFuckedUpFamily · 21/04/2020 13:09

Good for you. I’m glad it’s giving you that feeling of superiority that you’ve obviously missed. Btw, I’ve never snitched on anyone, but feel free to make up your own narrative. You’re obviously absolutely nothing like those other people who make up their own minds about people. Nope, nothing in common at all. Hmm Congratulations.

MsTSwift · 21/04/2020 13:12

You are being abit odd now I’m not saying you. But I will of course judge negatively anyone posting up pictures of strangers on Facebook to “name and shame” them as would any normal decent person I imagine

00Sassy · 21/04/2020 13:33

Does anyone know if it’s a misconception that we’re all only allowed an hour's exercise outside per day?

In the eyes of the law I mean.

I’ve seen ‘one form of exercise per day’ and more recently in the Likely to be allowed list (linked by a pp up thread actually) that in some genuine cases more than one form of exercise per day would be okay.

So two forms of exercise might take someone over the hour allowed.

It also says that stopping to eat lunch during a long walk is likely to be okay (so not just a snack)
I’m thinking a long walk where you stop to eat lunch will probably take more than an hour.

Is there really a one hour per person per day rule?

Minesril · 21/04/2020 13:39

It's the new 'my neighbour (who I don't like) has a new tv and has been on holiday twice this week and has her boyfriend round all the time, should i report for benefit fraud?'. Nasty. And is going to split communities apart after all this is over.

Hingeandbracket · 21/04/2020 14:18

Does anyone know if it’s a misconception that we’re all only allowed an hour's exercise outside per day?

Yes it is utter utter bollocks but has somehow been parroted as the truth. There is no time limit.

00Sassy · 21/04/2020 14:54

@ Hingeandbracket
Thank you Smile

LonelyFromCorona · 21/04/2020 14:58

Such an extraordinary situation whereby social media, fear and initially extremely vague government and policing guidelines have led to a situation where a self-appointed "Stasi" who take the most extreme (often incorrect) interpretation of the rules effectively police the community.

It's not just happening in your area @Lexijayde44 my local groups have similar!