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?

www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/upskirting-public-urged-report-offenders-prosecutions-double

There is a voyeurism act, 46 men have been prosecuted for upskirting.

It is not illegal to take photos of people, including children, in a public place.

It is illegal to take indecent photos of children. Taking photos of children in public places may also amount to harassment and may be an infringement of privacy (a civil offence) if the child had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the circumstances. The press are also subject to a code of practice which contains restrictions on taking and publishing information relating to children.

What about school photos? I have paid money for photos of ‘random kids’ in my kids’ class photo and my son’s photo is in many random people’s houses as they have done the same. Are schools public or private? Also fairly certain we’re in many theme park photos and baby class photos and so on. And then of course all the public places like fairs, playgrounds etc.

Taking general photos of children in a public space is not upskirting.

I am always careful about taking photos eg at the splash pad as people in various states of undress, but not at a playground.

This is nonsense.

GDPR does not apply to those taking a photo in a household context (for no commercial gain) and a professional can use legitimate interest.

Yup common knowledge.

You can take photos of people in public areas without permission

Consent is not needed to store an image even if someone is a professional.

I really wish people wouldn't post crap about GDPR.

How on earth has this come as a shock? Have you never taken or even seen, say, a tourist or beach photo that includes other people?

No they do not require consent at all, consent is just one of the reasons for processing. Also people who rely on concentration as their lawful reason for processing just don’t get it, most things can be done using another reason, whereas consent puts the person/business at risk of it being withdrawn.

I think most people are aware of this unless you've been living under a rock.

You do realise that taking pictures up females skirts and taking pictures of fully clothed children, is very different?

Ah the "someone tried to do x to my child" fb posts. Don't believe half of them.

There were like 20 kidnappers in various vans here🤷🏻

This isn't true. GDPR doesn't require anything, the only time would be when additional identifying information is associated with the picture, such as the picture published and name next to it. As long as they remain anonymous a persons picture is not considered personal data.

Schools ask for photo permission from parents when they join the school.
My DC are adopted, so we said no to social media / online / papers but said yes to class photos. Baby classes should do likewise.

Interestingly we had a 'near miss' on that. Another parent came up to me saying she thought she knew by DCs birth grandparents, as they lived next door to her mum, had talked about them and she recognised the pairing of the names. Sensibly didn't say anything. If mine had been in the same class and they had given a class photo to her mum, who had had it displayed in her home when neighbours visited...

Theme parks etc are less of an issue as people come from all over so a child might be recognised but couldn't be traced.

Of course it isnt illegal but poor etiquette absolutely

If you called 101, you would simply give some call handler a bit of a laugh. If you took the camera and smashed it, you would get yourself arrested and a bill for replacing the camera. Incidentally, you would also not succeed in destroying the photo that way as the memory card would almost certainly survive.

In public area you don’t have a right to privacy. Anyone can be watching or looking at anyone in public. You can photograph anything or anyone in a non restricted public area.

Whatever they are photographing or filming you do in public was openly viewed by others, where was your expectation of privacy? Yes, somebody might take a photo of your child as they're a pervert, but you cannot police people's thoughts, if they don't take a photo they are still having those thoughts. Most paedophiles do not act on their feelings and your children are far more likely to be abused by somebody you know.

Teach your children not to talk to strangers, not to keep secrets and which body parts others should not touch and chill out, there are NOT perverts around every corner.

A group of birdwatchers was questioned by police when they were seen camped outside a school with cameras and lenses.

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/birdwatchers-questioned-police-after-trying-15730450

Deliberately captures video clips of your child? You'd be comfortable with this?
I assume anyone doing that isn't going to be brazen doing so I doubt I'd even know. Same with pics so not going to spend my time worrying about it 🤷‍♀️

What are views on inside a sports stadium? Someone who works there takes a photo of a teenager misbehaving, not surreptitiously.

Under the Protection from Harassment Act, you can be protected in law, if someone taking your picture is causing you distress or intimidation.

Of course it’s not illegal. How do you think CCTV exists?

People don’t have the right to privacy in public. How could they?

Tbh I’d never even considered whether this was legal or not until it happened to me and I posted on here about it.

A couple months ago I had got on the bus with DD (she would have been 11 months), placed the pushchair in the pushchair area and sat down in the seats right next to it. As soon as I sat down the woman next to me picked up her phone and seemed like she was taking a picture of DD. I looked at her phone as she could have been taking a selfie or looking at the front camera and using it as a mirror. She wasn’t. My child was on her screen and she was taking a picture of her.

Without hesitation I said, ‘er why you taking a picture of my child, you need to delete that.’ She goes, ‘she’s just so cute I had to take a picture.’ I was so shocked and said ‘you can’t just take pictures of people’s kids without asking. Delete it.’ She then said ‘sorry you’re right’ and deleted it. I asked to delete it from her deleted folder but she didn’t know how to do that and asked if I’d help her. Deleted the pic of her phone and the whole time I just sat next to her in silence. Her dad was standing next to the pushchair and couldn’t believe it.

When I posted on MN there was a mix of ‘this situation isn’t funny at all and very serious, I would have went crazy/her phone would have went out the window’ and then there was the ‘well it’s not illegal to take pictures of your child/you were rude to tell her to delete it’ and all those sort of comments.

Whether it’s illegal or not. Anytime I see someone take a picture of my child I’ll confront them everytime. One time I was in Cafe Nero and I realised a boy about 17 was taking a video of DD and I who would have been around 4 months old. Straight away I said ‘what do you think you’re doing,’ all of a sudden it was ‘oh sorry sorry’ and he ended up dropping his phone because he was so flustered as I don’t think he expected me to realise/say something.

CCTV is also a different matter because it’s not about your child being captured on something alongside many other people. It’s the fact that an individual is going out of their way to take a picture of YOUR child for 1) absolutely no reason and 2) they don’t have consent. Why would you want a picture of a random baby/child on your phone? Fuck that