Parents Banned From Taking Pictures of Their Own Children at Sports Day

Telegraph UK ^ | 06/17/2009 | Telegraph UK

[Dallas59]

Mrs Ethelston's Church of England Primary School, in Uplyme, Devon, prohibited photos and video filming, claiming it was due to changes in child protection and images legislation.

It is the first time the school has taken such measures.
Parents criticised the move and said they felt there was no legal reason why they cannot take photos for personal use.

Jane Souter, who has a son at the school and is chair of the Parents Teachers and Friends Association, said: "It is a shame but that is the way it is all going now, you are not allowed to do a lot of things because of rules and regulations.

[Dallas59]

While Islam in the UK is allowed to go unchecked...

[americanophile]

Sometimes you search for the right word to properly describe a policy like this...and sometimes the simpler the better: stupid.

[Slapshot68]

Coming to America...right up there with bringing in a plastic knife in your lunch to school and kindergarteners being charged with sexual assault for kissing a girl in class.

[EagleUSA]

A real sick sense of priority in the ultra-liberal UK government. Isn’t liberalism beautiful??

[Dallas59]

On the one hand.....protection for cross dressers, and he/shes....but no taking pictures of your own kids....

[bgill]

Coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

[Mr. Mojo]

"It is a shame but that is the way it is all going now, you are not allowed to do a lot of things because of rules and regulations."

I suspect these nutty rules and regs don't apply in the UK's Muslim 'hoods.

[Dallas59]

How about all those security cams in the UK? Couldn’t a “wrong” picture get into the hands of a perv? The Getty picture on the front page of the article should be pulled.

[Blueflag]

Actually this is already in place in the US. For instance, the USA Water Polo organization has teams post a photography policy at every sanctioned game or tourney. It has language, strictly interpreted, that could prevent a ‘parent’ ‘partner’ or ‘relative’ from taking photos of minors.

I questioned the policy since we videotape every game for training purposes. The quiet answer was that it comes down to stopping perverts from taking photos of minors in bathing suits and posting it on the web.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Yep it’s a crazy world. Of course we are concerned about pedophiles taking pictures of kids, but, is the answer really to ban everyone from taking pictures? And how does that square with a world with so many security cameras taking photos of people in public places?

[pissant]

The fall of England is one of the saddest tales in the history of nations.

[arbooz]

"the school has to follow its own code of conduct. "I am sure the school do not like it just as much as we do."

The school follows its own code and they do not like it. So it's up to the school to change it?

[Incorrigible]

it comes down to stopping perverts from taking photos of minors in bathing suits and posting it on the web.

Yep. As the coach of 6th grade girls soccer and basketball, I encourage parents NOT to post photos of them on widely viewed public sites; preferably on sites with controlled access. I could only imagine if I was a swimming or cheerleading coach.

I also discourage my older nieces and nephews from posting indiscriminate photos of themselves and to be wary of others using cell phone cameras aimed at them.

It's an unfortunate situation and I'm glad now that my high school/college years were not captured on camera surreptitiously.

 

[SWAMPSNIPER]

What is amazing is the way the Brits accept and rationalize this sort of intrusion on freedom.

[Domandred]

Office drone: Because that’s the policy and we’ve done it that way for years.

after said office drone said she didn’t like the policy either, it was enacted by the person she replaced when he retired, and she could change it at any time

[arbooz]

[Still Thinking]

Jane Souter, who has a son at the school and is chair of the Parents Teachers and Friends Association, said: "It is a shame but that is the way it is all going now, you are not allowed to do a lot of things because of rules and regulations.

She acts like this is some kind of immutable force of nature that simply has to be accepted, as opposed to malfeasance on the part of employees of hers which in the short term can be morally ignored, since it is the employees' error and not hers, and in the long term should leave her power hungry employees on the street.

[DemonDeac]

If Churchill could see todays weak-kneed PC UK he’d wonder why he bothered. Pathetic.