Silly Old Twit

 A few weeks ago I had occasion to go down to my local post office depot to collect some mail that I was expecting. It was a nice summer like day here in Dublin and as I knew I would have to pass by the park I decided to take my camera and shoot some pictures on my way home. I have a blog of sorts on Blogger and often use it to post pictures I may have taken on my daily travels. I picked up my mail and walked home by the Dodder River ( a stream really ) and from there entered Herbert Park by the side gate. As I entered there were three football pitches up ahead of me and seeing what seemed like hunderds of children playing football I decided that it was just the thing to fill some space on my blog and so I began taking some photos. I don’t know how long I was there but at a guess I supose it may have been a few minutes. I was not paying paticular attention to what was going on just taking some photos as I had done many time before. At one point I saw some kids ( ten or twelve year olds ) playing hurling , a game simular to hockey which is native to Ireland. It’s a beautifull , flowing kind of game that has a kind of poetry to it and I though to myself that my few readers would really like these pictures and with that in mind proceeded to shoot some. It was then that I felt someone tapping on my shoulder and turning around found myself facing a smart young woman.

         I had no idea who she was or where she came from but no sooner was I facing her than she told me that her school had a policy of not permitting the children to be photographed. I was not sure how I should react as I’m not in the habit of having stranger approach me like this but simply answered that I was taking some snapshots for my blog. She repeated that they , her school , had a policy and that she wanted the photos to be deleted. I smiled and deleted the photos the way I suppose anyone would while all the time wondering exactly who the hell this person was. She was polite but this didn’t alter the fact that she had stopped me , a total stranger , and had told me what I could do or not do. It crossed my mind to tell her to just go away but I had the distinct impression that if I had not done as she wanted she would have called the police after making a scene. All this happened over a period of perhaps one minute and it was a rather unpleasant experience. It’s hard to explain how I felt but I think it is fair to say that I felt imtimidated.

 In a recent report  the first serious attempt to ban the photographing of children in the UK  made recently at the Vale of Glamorgan Council in South Wales it is reported that, Ron Quick , the councils director of environmental and economic regeneration proposes that , ” no photographs, filming or other imaging shall take place of children or young people in parks without written permission”.

   There are those no doubt who feel that this is as it should be and that children must be protected at all costs but this kind of logic would make it illegal to take photographs not only in public parks but beaches and just about any public place.

    From my own experience I now find myself in a situation whereby I no longer feel comfortable even walking in a park if there are children there at the same time.

 In an Australian proposal based on Dutch copyright law the use of an image ( on the ‘net ) would not be permitted if it is contrary to the reasonable interest of the person in the image. This is quite a reasonable proposition but to jump from that situation to the banning of all photo’s of children or anyone for that matter in public would be nonsense.

   It seems that the reasonable use of a camera may , like our right to free speech , become a thing of the past.