Photographing children

[Ranchu]

Any reason, or none. I'm not going to play word games. Do you want to claim a right to access to other people's children against their wishes, Roger, or not?

 

[daveleo]

People are more paranoid now than ever before. They are blitzed with news every night of local crimes against innocents and vulnerables; and when a crime happens there's the post-crime analysis from school administrators or neighbors "We missed all the signs that this was coming" or worse "We *ignored* all the signs that this crime was coming".
And the most popular TV crime / law dramas make up even worse stories than the news dishes out about kidnappings, child abduction, sex trafficking, etc etc
On top of that, it seems that everyone nowadays wants to be the hero who stops the next attack of something or spots the next crime that has yet to be committed or reports the next suspicious character.

Anyway ... I wouldn't go around taking pictures of kids in school yards or playgrounds or their back yards. You know someone will call the cops, don't you? Or maybe swing a baseball bat at your head.

 

[gns]

Do you want to claim a right to access to other people's children against their wishes, Roger, or not?

Not speaking for Roger, but if you define access as simply looking at someone in a public space, then yes.

 

[Ranchu]

Then what when they prevent you from doing so?

 

[gns]

Then what when they prevent you from doing so?

By taking them home? Covering them up?

 

[Ranchu]

Yelling at you, threatening to call police.

 

[Keith]

Children are predated upon no more now in society than they ever have been in our past so yes a level of paranoia does exist beyond reason in my opinion.

We also have a whole new generation of what they call 'helicoptor parents' out there and they appall me because they are a large part of the problem.

 

[Ranchu]

Seems to me the problem is pedophiles, Keith.

 

[Keith]

Seems to me the problem is pedophiles, Keith.

Yes I appreciate that but pedophilia is nothing new ... like all human behavioral deviation it's been around as long as we (humans) have been. The internet has exposed it but not accelerated it to a new level ... this needs to be remembered.

 

[raid]

In Florida, the state laws allow all residents of Florida to view online all files of registered sexual offenders and sexual predators. You can see on the map hundreds of such offenders or predators all around the streets close by. A hotspot is close to Disney World!

 

[bayernfan]

this is something i feel quite at home with being a documentary/street photographer.

i don't allow the fear of others to prevent me from making the photographs i want to make. i know my intentions and that's enough for me. just as if they were an adult, if a child asks me to stop taking their photo, i respect their request. 9 times out of 10 they enjoy being the subject in the frame.

i look people in the eye, smile, talk with them and they quickly understand what it is i'm trying to accomplish.

 

[Bob Michaels]

Any reason, or none. I'm not going to play word games. Do you want to claim a right to access to other people's children against their wishes, Roger, or not?

I won't speak for Roger, only my view.

There is no potential for a meaningful photo in that situation. So I will say only a few words to attempt to diffuse the confrontation and then immediately move on. My objective is to make photos, nothing else.

I can enjoy a good debate over rights to photograph if it is in the right situation. That is not it.

I once felt it necessary to have that right to photograph debate with our local police chief. But not in the street on the weekend when the problem surfaced. I simply told him we would address everything when he was in his office during regular business hours. And, I did everything in writing, never meeting him face to face again. Forcing him to respond in writing gave him time to consult the City Attorney and contemplate his response. It also eliminated any "you said ......." misunderstandings. Of course, I prevailed and have had no problems in the years since.

 

[MIkhail]

Seems to me the problem is pedophiles, Keith.

Can anybody explain, what possible harm can do the aforementioned theoretical pedofhile to a child, if he takes photo of a child, fully closed, on a street, using the obvious camera (as opposed to a small high res. video camera, hidden in tip of a pen, $19.99 available online)? What then would this pedophile do with such unlawfully obtained image?

 

[lynnb]

Can anybody explain, what possible harm can do the aforementioned theoretical pedofhile to a child, if he takes photo of a child, fully closed, on a street, using the obvious camera (as opposed to a small high res. video camera, hidden in tip of a pen, $19.99 available online)? What then would this pedophile do with such unlawfully obtained image?

Unlawfully obtained? I doubt that, unless there was a reasonable expectation of privacy, or if a person's private parts were being photographed without their permission, in the case of UK and Australian law. Can't speak for the US.

This is not about logic, it's about fear and emotion. Logic's got nothing to do with it. Anglo-Saxon cultures are presently gripped by fear and emotion, unlike France (see Roger's tractor girl story).

 

[gns]

Yelling at you, threatening to call police.

Yelling is probably within their rights and calling the police certainly is. I don't have much problem with the former and have none with the later. I have to say that neither of these has ever been part of my experience, though.

Because some have an exaggerated fear in public, doesn't mean that the rest of us should abandon reason and curtail our legal & harmless behavior to comfort them. Wouldn't doing that would just validate their beliefs and foster yet more paranoia?

 

[Ranchu]

Why do you say it's paranoia? I can't imagine what pedophiiles do all day other than think about kids. Yech, why am I talking about this? Just figure it out.

 

[gns]

We should have some statistics comparing frequency of child abuse/abduction by photography enthusiasts vs. teachers, vs. religious leaders, vs. victim's family members.

 

[Ranchu]

Statistics don't matter, you can explain the statistical probability that you would harm her child to a defensive mother, and tell me how far you get with that. Nobody cares what the probability is, they want to know what's your interest, and they want you gone.

 

[gns]

Why do you say it's paranoia?

As in, unreasonable fear. As in, not likely to occur.

 

[Ranchu]

You're deciding what's an unreasonable fear for somebody else, now?