Child photography banned at National Trust for Scotland site

This email recalls how a visitor to a National Trust for Scotland site was warned at the entrance that he shouldn’t take photographs of children…

‘I recently visited J.M. Barrie’s birthplace home in Kirriemuir, Angus, a building run by the National Trust for Scotland, holding a camera. I was expressly told, as I purchased tickets, that I must not use my camera to photograph children. Mention was made of both child protection and data protection legislation, and also of the possibility of tracing women in refuges via possible posting on social networking sites.

‘It did make me feel that I was being accused in advance of malign intent towards children, especially since there are many other misuses to which a camera could be put, e.g. a man stalking a woman by photographing her. Its effect was rather creepy. One was caused by the injunction to look upon the children with special caution, as though they were creatures fraught with danger and taboo.’