Smaller World

[dalekboy]

Just got back from wandering the Giralang shops with my better camera (but no tripod). Pictures will be up when I find time.

On the way back I walked past the soccer field and there were a bunch of kids playing and being coached. The field was lovely, the kids seemed to be having fun, and in the distance between the trees, the Telstra tower was lit orange by the setting sun. It would have been a gorgeous photo.

Five years ago.

But of course, in this day and age, I couldn't afford to take it.

Someone may have seen the guy on the footpath with the camera and decided I'm obviously a paedophile, because the only people who could ever have wanted to record a scene like that would be fiends and perverts. No ordinary person could derive pleasure from such shot - children playing at sunset with a solid Canberra icon in the background.

Someone may have made the accusation, and with no prior record or any evidence more substantial than a person worrying about someone standing in open view taking a photo of kids rugged up against the cold and playing sport, I would be investigated. Our computers would be confiscated (usually returned damaged, even if there is not a shred of proof of wrong-doing), friends questioned, and the fact that I play Father Christmas would probably work against me, even though there has never been the slightest concern regarding my conduct with any child. I'm considered one of the company's best Santas.

Oh, and chances are I would have to move out, leaving my 73 year old mum to try and care of my son all day long (which would not be good for either of them), or my son would be taken away from us while the investigation took place.

After months of investigation, even after being found completely innocent, there would still be people who looked at me askance. Because there's no smoke without fire, apparently. Oh and I wouldn't be allowed to play Santa again, because it would be recorded that I was investigated, and that's enough to stop me being allowed to play the part.

Meanwhile, I'm assuming that most of the perverts who have any sense are buying camera glasses and pinhole cameras and getting their pictures that way.

For the rest of us, well, the world gets just that little bit smaller and less colourful as the illusion of safety is maintained for the masses.

It's all really rather a shame, as it would have been a beautiful photo.

Comments

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

I think the initial check makes sense. You certainly don't want someone who has been arrested for sex crimes against children getting a job that puts them with kids.

I also think the process exists to dissuade people from going for those jobs. I wonder how many people who have been thinking about young girls sitting on their knee have been put off playing Father Christmas because they have to have a police check? They may never have been arrested for anything, but they might be scared off by the idea that maybe the police will dig deep and find something to arrest them on.

The problem is that, like most systems, it's very easy to get past it, deliberately or accidentally. I know one year I played Santa without having had the check done. I thought the company was going to handle it, they thought I was going to handle it. So I played Santa for six weeks without having been checked up on for the Nth time.

At the same time, I had one woman tell me about her nieces, who had been felt up in no uncertain terms by the Santa the previous year. When I asked if they reported him, they said no, and all I could think was, 'And how many other people didn't report him, which is why your nieces got felt up? And how many girls got felt up after yours?'

So, genuine question, what steps do you think should be taken to protect people like the one you're mentoring? What process would you be satisfied with as a good working proposal that protects everyone invonved?

[magnapops.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with the general public pointing out this stuff? We have already accepted that the checks don't stop the "Santa's from feeling up little children" So if we aren't relying on police checks to ensure people are ok to be around children, maybe we can stop making the 98% of the population feel like criminals when we want to take an innocent picture.