YouTube or not YouTube?
James Ricketson asks an ethical question: does a filmmaker have the right to post footage of minors online, without the parents’ explicit permission?
The boys and girls I was filming on the beach were mostly pre-teens. “Where are you going to show it?” a girl about nine asked. “Maybe on the internet,” I replied without thinking. “On YouTube.” The kids screamed so loudly with delight the sound on my camera distorted. I didn’t have permission from these kids’ parents to film, and, of course, no permission to post images of them on the internet. It was not until the following day that it occurred to me that this might be a problem.
Rewind. It’s late Saturday afternoon, a few hours from Earth Hour. I learn that festivities will start at sunset on Whale Beach, close to where I live in Sydney. It will be a family affair – picnic, music, a community get-together. The highlight will be a procession along the beach – each of several dozen kids carrying a small lantern they have made themselves that afternoon. I’m a filmmaker and I’ve documented many such local events over the years so I turn up with my camera.
The procession during Earth Hour is led by drummers, followed by a large white translucent paper whale lit from inside. Surrounded by kids with their lanterns. Beautiful. The kids have a ball. Many of them perform for the camera in the way kids do in silly home movies – mimicking gestures from favourite TV shows, flashing ‘V’ for Victory signs, shouting comments (“I love you mum” “Go Mona Vale”) into my microphone, pulling faces.
Whilst I agree with your decision in light of the personal risks that it carries, I’m also appalled that we have come to this situation where the paranoid are running society and our institutions. Or is it part of that unmentionable push to somehow outlaw the internet so that big biz media may continue to thrive and so that censorship and propaganda may continue unchecked.
I guess it is out of question for you post the video onto YouTube anonymously, since many people have seen you filming and may track it back to you.
A good topic of conversation, James.
It is not, I believe, OK to film or photograph kids and put them on to the internet as anything other than part of a crowd. Kids mugging to camera in close up and shots that otherwise involve kids in close up may be an infringement of the laws in many states. If you are doing it ‘for profit’ in any way (e.g. you are receiving payment or payment in kind – even a sausage roll), it is absolutely not acceptable in Victoria and Qld as it would be defined under the legislation as work. In NSW, the Office of the Children’s Guardian absents itself from decision making where children themselves are not being paid.
I fully understand the arguments about the ‘fun police’ but given kids are not in a position (under 16) to give permission themselves, I would not film anyone under that age without their parents or guardian’s permission. Kids may load up pictures of themselves onto the net but that is between them and their parents.
The issue is not of someone thinking about the questions of appropriateness but of those who would (and do) use the ambiguity around these issues for exploitation. I would not have felt great when my kids were young about a guy walking around on a beach or in a school yard with a camera filming them without knowing who they were.
It is a contentious area and good that you have raised it.
I wouldn’t post the piece I shot anonymously for ethical reasons but even if I did everyone in the community knows me by sight and would know who did it. In fact, given that everyone on the beach (and there were several hundred) could not have faield to see me filming it could be argued that it was up to the parents to come up to me and ask what I was doing and why. And if they had any concern about the possibility of their kid winding upon the internet they could have let me know. The alternative, much suggested, is that I could have approached the several hundred people on the beach and asked permission. Not a practical possibility.
So, a few friends have seen the DVD I have made and loved it. All the others in the community and especially the kids who are in it and were so looing forward to seeing it, will not see it. this will apply to any future community events that I might film. C’est la vie!
In reality, doesn’t this mean people can no longer make films that involve just about any public event or gathering where the public happens to be visible? Will every passing face, logo and billboard soon need to be pixelated? Then only feature films with enormous budgets could show (or rather depict) the outside world, and all progress towards accessibility to filmmaking will come to nothing. I have a 9-year-old son. If some pervert happens to check him out during swimming carnival – or take his photo playing soccer in the oval across the road – how should I prevent it? Keep him locked up at home? Consider all photographers peterphiles? People who make a scene anytime they spot someone shooting in the vicinity of minors are simply offloading their own shit onto an accepted target.