To be shocked to discover

[Junipercrumble]

Apparently, it is NOT illegal for a stranger to take photographs or video clips of people, including their children in a public place. 😵

I, like many of my friends are astonished if this is true.

I wonder how many people are aware of this?

Being totally honest?

I genuinely thought everyone was aware of this and especially on Mumsnet.

I’ve always known that, how would Papparazzi work otherwise?

But also you might want to ask yourself if you're in public anyway then what's the problem?

I mean say you went to a visitor attraction for a day out, you'd never be able to photograph anything if you had to wait for the area/landmark to be completely empty.

Surely this is common knowledge - there’d be no virtually no pictures in newspapers or the media at all if the reverse was true. I can’t see how anyone could have thought otherwise 🤔

Why would it be illegal? Of course it's not illegal. How would you have expected that to be enforced?

Yeah - this isn’t news!

No one in my circle of friends were aware of this.
Surely you must ask permission of the parent before snapping pictures or video clips of their children especially?
Paparazzi have no interest in taking random pictures of strangers or their children though, and surely they have to get permission first, either from a parent if they wish to capture images of a child, or an adult themselves if they wish to capture images of an adult?

Yes, I concur.

How could this be policed if public photography / filming will want allowed?

Of course it’s not illegal, otherwise most of people’s holiday snaps would be illegal.

How would you propose enforcing it?

Eg I'm at a park, I take a picture of my child, yours happens to be in the background (but clearly identifiable). Should I delete it?

And they could put pics on SM as they 'own' the photo

This is becoming a more contentious area, due to the amount/ease of capturing images, but yes in public it is legal. Often people do it in places where it is not legal e.g. on private landwhere the property owner has the right to set the rules - many attractions now ask people not to take pictures of other people's children.

This is the way it is done in Hungary, unless it has changed again.

No, permission isn’t necessary.

If you are in the U.K. the odds are you are on cctv in many if not most urban areas.

In Hungary there was a civil code introduced.

Certain areas, are high profiled for e.g. Security, but other than that when in public, it's a surveillance, freefor all

I have always made sure I dont capture other peoples children in any photographs I've taken.
Why would you want other children who dont belong to you in your photographs without their parents permission?
I'd be extremely upset if I discovered a random stranger was taking pictures of my child, although I suppose I could understand if my child was captured accidentally.
However, what happens if a stranger deliberately snaps pictures of your child? Deliberately captures video clips of your child? You'd be comfortable with this? 🤨

CCTV has rules around publishing though. I am less bothered about my kids' images being captured than I am about them being published.

yeah most people know this

I think etiquette now is not to photograph other people's children in the background where possible. Obviously not if distant/not recognisable but a big close up would be weird.

Of course it’s not illegal. How on earth could it be illegal?! If it was illegal nobody would be able to take a photo in a public space without making anyone who happened to be passing by at the time sign release forms. Have you been doing that every time you take a holiday snap in a crowded place, then?

How do you think news footage is filmed? When you see a reporter on TV doing a piece to camera on a busy shopping street, how on earth did you think they would be seeking permission from everyone who was walking past in the background?

If this is true, I literally have no words.

Who doesn't know this? It's common knowledge.

It is true.

Wait until you hear about CCTV.