I am a Road Safety Officer who goes into schools and works with children. In one of my presentations I use photographs of the locality of the school I am visiting to show dangers, illustrate safe behaviour, etc. Today I went out to take a few shots for a visit I am planning to do next week. I was wearing my ID badge, had a large SLR around my neck, and was going about my business when an irate school secretary burst out of the building and demanded to know what I was doing as some parents had mentioned to her that a 'strange man was taking photos of children'. I explained to her what I was doing and she proceeded to tell me that I could not take photos of the children as some of the parents had refused permission. I started to tell her that I could take whatever pictures I liked as I was in a public place, photographing other people in a public place. With that she turned on her heels and stormed off.
If I was a paedophile, as some parents must have suspected, why would I be taking shots of children dressed up in virtually every article of clothing they own on a dull December day? Would I not sneek a small camera into a swimming pool, or similar. These parents who are so 'concerned' about the safety of their little ones are the same parents who drive around in cars with their children not in child seats, park half on the footway to let children out of the 'wrong' side of the car, drive them to school when the walk would do them a power of good, fill them with junk food, etc. Why can they not get some sort of common sense perspective on life and its hazards? Do they stop people from taking photos when they are on a holiday beach? If they really do not want their children photographed, why don't they cover them in veils like Michael Jackson did (there's a superb role model for any parent)?
The Police seem to think that anybody with a camera in public these days is a terrorist, and the parents think we are all paedophiles. When will common sense prevail? Rant over now, and blood pressure returning to normal.
