Writing on Reddit, the father - known by his handle, offstage4 - wrote: "What to do when strangers take pictures of your child?"
He continued to explain that, whilst sitting with his wife and baby in a local coffee shop one day, he spotted a woman sitting a little too close to comfort - and taking pictures on her smartphone.
He explained: “I noticed the woman sitting closest to us is pointing her cell phone camera directly at me holding my child. I'm pretty sure she is taking a phone of us and I turn slightly away. A couple of minutes pass and I notice it happening again. I don't want to get confrontational but in hindsight I think I should have.”
“I noticed the woman sitting closest to us is pointing her cell phone camera directly at me holding my child"
After a few moments, the woman attempted to strike up conversation with offstage4 and his wife, telling them that they were the “cutest couple”.
But then things got stranger.
He continued: “She asks some general baby questions like do I feel jelous that I can't breastfeed, all the while taking about how cute our son is. She then goes in full force with her camera phone and starts taking a lot of up close pictures.
“I was kind of thrown off by this because I'm an amateur photographer and I would never take a picture of a child with out asking the parent first. But she just went straight in and started taking what I can only guess was 10-20 some pictures.
"Annoying to the point of where she was requesting where we should move our hands to not cover our sons face. I mouthed to my wife ‘”what the hell?’”
He left the table briefly to look after their baby, who was getting fussy, but, when he returned, he discovered that the woman was now filming his wife - despite already being told no.
He said: “At this point my wife was done with this bulls**t. She sternly told the woman that she had already said not to being filmed and asked her again to stop.
“Well, that wasn't the last of it. I spotted her doing it again and said something. I would have brought it up to the manager if I hadn't seen that her bill was already paid for.”
Left feeling vulnerable by the situation, he asked fellow Reddit users for their advice.
And, within just 24 hours his post had received 187 comments - and the responses were all very eye-opening.
One wrote: “I would've gone nuts, to be honest. I don't care about whether she was legally entitled to take photos of my baby, I would've given the baby to my husband and made her delete the photos or call the damn cops. It's not okay to invade your baby's privacy like that.”
Another advised: “When someone oversteps their boundaries in a case like this, you have two choices: Leave or confront. Either would have been appropriate. Usually being in a public place it isn't illegal, but doing it after being asked to stop, or a parent indicates they don't like it, it sure as hell is bad manners.”
“I know this isn't the answer you want. Because weirdos taking pictures of your kids is just plain creepy. But as I understand it, filming in public is protected speech,” said another.
However they were quickly met with disbelief from other parents, one of whom raged: “That's the law. You can always turn public opinion against them. I'd personally make a scene and embarrass the s**t out of them.”
What would you have done in this situation?
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