Government Backs ‘Common Sense’ Approach Over Photographs of Children
The government has backed a “common sense” approach to the issue of photographs of children in the media through existing legislation and industry self-regulation.
Speaking on behalf of the Government in a debate on children’s privacy in the House of Lords on Tuesday, Lord Bates said there was a balance to be struck between privacy and free speech which was achievable “without the need to criminalise everyone who produces an image of a child.”
Lord Bates continued: “There is a balance, in a free society, between being able to produce and publish images and identifying those images—in other words between the human rights aspects of Article 6, which deal with protection and privacy, and of Article 8, which deals with free speech. The courts deal with that and the self-regulators deal with that. We can deal with it in a common-sense way without the need to criminalise everyone who produces an image of a child.”
Lord Bates said: “I understand the importance of ensuring that children’s privacy is respected and that safeguards are in place to protect it. The Government have introduced the new system of independent press self-regulation and there are remedies available under civil law. The Government are committed to tackling the production and distribution of indecent images of children and criminal offences are available in such cases.”
But when it comes to the matter at hand, which is that of self-regulation, it is important to note that the Editors’ Code of Practice actually stipulates that where a child is under the age of 16, consent should be sought. That is something which should happen under the code and under self-regulation. Where that does not happen, there is then redress through the civil courts.
“Section 1.8 of the Ofcom code refers to the protection of children and that is mirrored by the code of ethics under the self-regulatory system. What we need to do is ensure that that is working and that people are protected. At the same time, there is a need for a balance on the one hand between large crowd scenes in which children might be involved, or the premiere of a movie where a child star might be putting themselves in the public domain, and situations where privacy is involved. A fine balance needs to be achieved.”
Speaking about campaign group proposals to prevent the identification of any children in the media Santha Rasaiah, NMA legal, policy and regulatory affairs director, said: “The publication of photographs of any child is already addressed by the Editors’ Code of Practice which is upheld by the Independent Press Standards Organisation as well as UK law. There is already a variety of civil and criminal law governing this area. Any proposals for new legislation outlawing press publication would be unjustified and unnecessary.
“Any proposals for legislation making it an offence for the press to publish photographs of children without their parents’ or legal guardians’ consent would have serious consequences for freedom of expression and the ability of local and national newspapers to report. It would be uncertain, impracticable and inconsistent.
“For example, in order to avoid the risk of prosecution, any local newspaper would have in practice stop using routine photographs of public events – such as town carnivals, church parades, village fetes, bonfire night, demonstrations, or crowd scenes – that might feature an identifiable under 18 year old. It would also become an offence for them to publish readers’ photographs of such events which featured other peoples’ children- irrespective of the contributors’ own postings.”