Junior football - Photography legalities?

[JOJO]

Please bare with me, I've never posted on a forum before. Ha ha.

I'm the nominated (novice) photographer for my son's football team (under 9's). I've never had any issues or complaints in the three years I've been doing this. HOWEVER, on one occasion I was asked by a grumpy man at an away match not to take pictures. The Match was on a field that was possibly owned by a local school/council.

Was I right to stop clicking, or could I have carried on?
The parents on our team have signed media consent forms (even though the pictures are only put on a closed Facebook page).

I'd be grateful of any feedback

[Janice Freeman]

Some guidance here from a Senior Police officer Joanne.

https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/acpo_t ... all_forces

There is a lot of argument still about photographing children etc and where or where not you can take photographs. My understanding is that if you are in a public place on public land then you are able to take photographs - children included. If you are on private land/property then the permission of the owners should be sought... If you have permission from the owners and then in the case of children, the parent objects, I would not know what the law is in this instance. If A parent objects - I would not take the photo - but that is just me! It is fairly straight-forward really, however, there are instances when on public land that you may not take photographs and these usually relate to secure establishments such as prisons, government buildings (in some instances) and military establishments. My rule of thumb is that if you are not sure, or you are seriously upsetting someone or they really do object then don't take the photo.

Hope this helps a little.

Janice

[John]

There's the legalities and the realities.

There's nothing to prevent you taking photos of anyone from a public place, and in your case you even had agreement from those concerned. One grumpy old man has no particular rights in this.

The only limitation really is that if something starts to cause a scene, probably better to back away. Obviously we can't view the way this situation was going, but you did have a right to pursue what you were doing so perhaps moving away from the complainer might have been enough?

[JOJO]

Many thanks.
I will no doubt be asking more questions like this in the future. Ha ha