Two men in Ibn Batutta out photographing Children this afternoon without consent! | Page 2 | ExpatWoman.com
 

Two men in Ibn Batutta out photographing Children this afternoon without consent!

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EW OLDHAND
Latest post on 13 October 2011 - 08:51
Sorry, but its because they love kids??? Really? you think strangers taking photos of other peoples children (whether they're white or not) is because they love kids??? Also I really don't see how you've gotten out of this thread that children are getting attention because of their color?? There is a huge difference with people giving attention to your child and saying they're cute etc etc to taking sneaky photographs, or taking photographs at all. edited by AdviceSeeker on 12/10/2011 I dont see where N Kaye said anything different. taking pics of children, particularly when the shooters dont ask permission, is creepy and is not encouraged in any culture that we know of.... The only parts of N.Kaye's posts that stood out to me are: "It would just be nice not to assume you get attention because you're white and that all bad behavior is 'someone' elese culture. Nope, it's they love kids." One more thing.....in general.....and cultural....take note. "please - enough with the assumptions that your child gets attention because of your colour. My kid isn't blonde and we get lots of attention. Don't think I've ever been anywhere and not had it. Always women or families. Never men!! Babies are seen as a wonderful blessing and the attention you get is out of love and they genuinely like babies. All babies. We've been conditioned in the west to fear any adult that comes near your baby." And by the way, men aren't the only people you should be wary of. <em>edited by AdviceSeeker on 13/10/2011</em>
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EW GURU
Latest post on 13 October 2011 - 08:46
Sorry, but its because they love kids??? Really? you think strangers taking photos of other peoples children (whether they're white or not) is because they love kids??? Also I really don't see how you've gotten out of this thread that children are getting attention because of their color?? There is a huge difference with people giving attention to your child and saying they're cute etc etc to taking sneaky photographs, or taking photographs at all. edited by AdviceSeeker on 12/10/2011 I dont see where N Kaye said anything different. taking pics of children, particularly when the shooters dont ask permission, is creepy and is not encouraged in any culture that we know of....
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 13 October 2011 - 08:20
I was in MOE a week ago waiting for the lift up to M&S and i had DD in her buggy. A group of 6 approached me, 2 of the men immediately whipped out cameras and started taking photos of DD. I said "NO!" but one of the women in the group took the buggy out of my hands to spin it round so the men could get a better picture!!! I was fuming. Luckily a passer by waded in when he heard me struggling "I said no, she is my child and if i say no i mean no!!" As soon as he said no they dispersed. They had a little boy with them (maybe 8yrs old)2 women and 4 men. The women were trying to speak to my DD while the men attempted to take photos. Not sure if it was an over excited family looking at the baby smiling at them or something more sinister but all i know is when she took the buggy off me i could have ended up in jail for hitting her! Reported to security - i havent heard anything from them Oh my goodness, these people are crazy!! gush I do not know what I would have done!! and to clear things up since I am reading some posts pointing to the fact that it is acceptable in some cultures: to whoever wrote that, taking PICTURES of children is CHILD ABUSE in god knows what country!!!!
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EW OLDHAND
Latest post on 13 October 2011 - 08:15
Are we reading the same thread? edited by N.Kaye on 13/10/2011 I think we are, but clearly you and I are reading it very differently.
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EW EXPLORER
Latest post on 13 October 2011 - 08:14
I was in MOE a week ago waiting for the lift up to M&S and i had DD in her buggy. A group of 6 approached me, 2 of the men immediately whipped out cameras and started taking photos of DD. I said "NO!" but one of the women in the group took the buggy out of my hands to spin it round so the men could get a better picture!!! I was fuming. Luckily a passer by waded in when he heard me struggling "I said no, she is my child and if i say no i mean no!!" As soon as he said no they dispersed. They had a little boy with them (maybe 8yrs old)2 women and 4 men. The women were trying to speak to my DD while the men attempted to take photos. Not sure if it was an over excited family looking at the baby smiling at them or something more sinister but all i know is when she took the buggy off me i could have ended up in jail for hitting her! Reported to security - i havent heard anything from them
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EW EXPLORER
Latest post on 13 October 2011 - 08:10
This topic always gets my stomach in knots because on our first week here, back in 2008, a man took a pic of DD in C4 while I had my back turned away from her looking at coloring books and vanished into the crowd before I could react :( I can't help but think there's a pic of MY DD floating around somewhere...out there :( It's sickening
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EW MASTER
Latest post on 13 October 2011 - 07:32
I wonder what the response would actually be....I once spoke to the police at the airport about men taking surreptitious photos of various women and they said there was nothing they could do as it is not illegal to take photos of other people! To say I was shocked is putting it mildly. Perhaps if it were local women they would have acted differently. Perhaps if they hadn't been eating their McDonalds breakfast , ditto. Perhaps a different policeman might have acted differently. Perhaps because it is children...who knows....
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EW MASTER
Latest post on 13 October 2011 - 06:14
Why didn't you report it? Why assume it's cultural? What culture? Dodgy blokes taking pics of kids is NOT cultural. Report the buggers but still feel maybe should have been done at the time. One more thing.....in general.....and cultural....take note. please - enough with the assumptions that your child gets attention because of your colour. My kid isn't blonde and we get lots of attention. Don't think I've ever been anywhere and not had it. Always women or families. Never men!! Babies are seen as a wonderful blessing and the attention you get is out of love and they genuinely like babies. All babies. We've been conditioned in the west to fear any adult that comes near your baby. So yep - sure this incident was/is unacceptable. Quite frankly any men taking pics is. It would just be nice not to assume you get attention because you're white and that all bad behavior is 'someone' elese culture. Nope, it's they love kids. Side note - just back from the shops (England) and two White girls/teenagers burpt in my face. One dared the other to do it. I'm not going to start saying that this kind of bad manners must be a 'cultural' acceptable action. No excuses! Nasty people everywhere. Sorry, but its because they love kids??? Really? you think strangers taking photos of other peoples children (whether they're white or not) is because they love kids??? Also I really don't see how you've gotten out of this thread that children are getting attention because of their color?? There is a huge difference with people giving attention to your child and saying they're cute etc etc to taking sneaky photographs, or taking photographs at all. edited by AdviceSeeker on 12/10/2011 Agreed.
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 13 October 2011 - 03:30
Are we reading the same thread? <em>edited by N.Kaye on 13/10/2011</em>
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EW OLDHAND
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 23:24
Why didn't you report it? Why assume it's cultural? What culture? Dodgy blokes taking pics of kids is NOT cultural. Report the buggers but still feel maybe should have been done at the time. One more thing.....in general.....and cultural....take note. please - enough with the assumptions that your child gets attention because of your colour. My kid isn't blonde and we get lots of attention. Don't think I've ever been anywhere and not had it. Always women or families. Never men!! Babies are seen as a wonderful blessing and the attention you get is out of love and they genuinely like babies. All babies. We've been conditioned in the west to fear any adult that comes near your baby. So yep - sure this incident was/is unacceptable. Quite frankly any men taking pics is. It would just be nice not to assume you get attention because you're white and that all bad behavior is 'someone' elese culture. Nope, it's they love kids. Side note - just back from the shops (England) and two White girls/teenagers burpt in my face. One dared the other to do it. I'm not going to start saying that this kind of bad manners must be a 'cultural' acceptable action. No excuses! Nasty people everywhere. Sorry, but its because they love kids??? Really? you think strangers taking photos of other peoples children (whether they're white or not) is because they love kids??? Also I really don't see how you've gotten out of this thread that children are getting attention because of their color?? There is a huge difference with people giving attention to your child and saying they're cute etc etc to taking sneaky photographs, or taking photographs at all. <em>edited by AdviceSeeker on 12/10/2011</em>
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EW GURU
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 22:41
Why didn't you report it? Why assume it's cultural? What culture? Dodgy blokes taking pics of kids is NOT cultural. Report the buggers but still feel maybe should have been done at the time. One more thing.....in general.....and cultural....take note. please - enough with the assumptions that your child gets attention because of your colour. My kid isn't blonde and we get lots of attention. Don't think I've ever been anywhere and not had it. Always women or families. Never men!! Babies are seen as a wonderful blessing and the attention you get is out of love and they genuinely like babies. All babies. We've been conditioned in the west to fear any adult that comes near your baby. So yep - sure this incident was/is unacceptable. Quite frankly any men taking pics is. It would just be nice not to assume you get attention because you're white and that all bad behavior is 'someone' elese culture. Nope, it's they love kids. . You have my respect ! Many people love babies and they will often ooh-aah over any cute baby and just "blond, blue eyed" babies As for culture, i dont know any culture where its acceptable to take pics of people or their kids without permission, neither Arab nor South Asian and definitely not western.
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EW EXPERT
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 22:30
I was in Ibn Battuta Mall by Toystore (Egypt Court) this afternoon with my 2 little ones when suddenly appeared two men with professional looking cameras. They were taking fotos of the walls seemingly interested in the interior design but something about them made me suspicious so I watched them closely. I saw that they were taking photographs on the sly of children without permission. Vey quickly I saw one photographing my daughter. I straight away confronted him. He just looked so shifty, seriously I can't explain why my hackles went up so fast, some sixth sense. But I was really angry! He told me he was just photographing the wall paintings but I insisted on seeing his camera. Sure enough there was a full photo of only my daughter! I made him delete it + another appeared + another close up. What on earth! It really didn't seem innocent to me. The fotos of my DD were deleted but how many other children had their pictures taken by them today I wonder. And why?! Please Please report this to both mall security and the police and read the warning on the siliconoasis.org website re attempted child abduction.
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 22:18
WTH.... I dont know what would i have done then... i dont want even to think about it, my DH would have grapped his camera and broke it in pieces I swear... I dont understand this mentality... arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgg
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 22:17
Why didn't you report it? Why assume it's cultural? What culture? Dodgy blokes taking pics of kids is NOT cultural. Report the buggers but still feel maybe should have been done at the time. One more thing.....in general.....and cultural....take note. please - enough with the assumptions that your child gets attention because of your colour. My kid isn't blonde and we get lots of attention. Don't think I've ever been anywhere and not had it. Always women or families. Never men!! Babies are seen as a wonderful blessing and the attention you get is out of love and they genuinely like babies. All babies. We've been conditioned in the west to fear any adult that comes near your baby. So yep - sure this incident was/is unacceptable. Quite frankly any men taking pics is. It would just be nice not to assume you get attention because you're white and that all bad behavior is 'someone' elese culture. Nope, it's they love kids. Side note - just back from the shops (England) and two White girls/teenagers burpt in my face. One dared the other to do it. I'm not going to start saying that this kind of bad manners must be a 'cultural' acceptable action. No excuses! Nasty people everywhere.
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 21:58
i def wud not like this happening to my kids
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EW GURU
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 21:52
I have a blonde hair, blue eye child and deal with this on a regular basis. I was in Gymboree in MOE and DH stayed outside with our children while I ran in the store. When I came out a family all had their cameras out taking pictures of my son with my DH standing right there. I was livid and told them get away from my children and delete the pictures. They got very mad at me and started talking to each other in a language I couldn't understand and they shot me dirty looks but I don't care. They have no business taking pictures of my children and my DH got an earful after that from me. He really didn't see the big deal about a family taking pictures of our children but I asked him to name me one time in all of our travels around the world that we have ever walked up to a random child on the street and took their picture. We have also been invited over to an Emirate families house that my DH works with the husband. The man's sisters kept taking pictures of my son during our visit and I found out a couple days later that the sisters used my son's picture as their online profile picture. It's just very strange to me that people would photograph a child like that AND use it online without the permission of the child's parents.
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EW OLDHAND
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 21:26
Interesting comment, AdviceSeeker. Unfortunately, most parents know that's not the case here. Try telling those who support the rights of others to take photos of kids (esp. blond, fair skinned kids) without permission, because it's their culture. Only once have I been asked permission by a stranger to take photos of my kids. When I said 'no', the person making the request was shocked and am sure she shot me a 'killer' look! edited by Piggle on 12/10/2011 I suppose a lot has changed here in the last 14 years that we've been here, but its not a cultural thing, I think its actually people being rude, and we excuse it based on "cultural differences" but it is also unaccepted in the culture here to take pictures without permission. I have no tolerance for it, and with blonde blue eyed kids in the family who are always targeted by these people, I have no problem in telling them not to do it, and if I felt it was malicious I would definitely report it.
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 21:16
Interesting comment, AdviceSeeker. Unfortunately, most parents know that's not the case here. Try telling those who support the rights of others to take photos of kids (esp. blond, fair skinned kids) without permission, because it's their culture. Only once have I been asked permission by a stranger to take photos of my kids. When I said 'no', the person making the request was shocked and am sure she shot me a 'killer' look! <em>edited by Piggle on 12/10/2011</em>
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EW OLDHAND
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 21:10
Please report this. I am tired of thrusting my hand in front of my childrens' faces with a view to deterring people from taking photos. Cultural differences - bah humbug. What about respecting my culture. Give dates and times to the authorities who can hopefully track it on CCTV. See the cultural differences argument always surprises me that it comes up here, as it is culturally wrong (and actually forbidden) to take pictures of people without their permission here. That was one of the main things we were taught when we moved out here, and it was commonplace for people to have their cameras snatched off them, and photos deleted or even cameras broken when people thought they'd been photographed by someone without their permission.
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 20:52
Please report this. I am tired of thrusting my hand in front of my childrens' faces with a view to deterring people from taking photos. Cultural differences - bah humbug. What about respecting my culture. Give dates and times to the authorities who can hopefully track it on CCTV.
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EW EXPLORER
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 19:46
I saw a similar thing in Geant, one dodgy looking man with his camera phone. He blatently took a picture of a little girl sitting in the shopping trolley, and the maid just watched. It made me feel physically sick. I gave him an evil look and then I started following him, he reunited with his equally dodgy looking friend (who no doubt was also taking pictures and they both left. This was on my mind all day, and in hindsight I really wish I had let security know.
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 19:45
This is so scary, has it been reported yet?? I have on many occasions caught people trying to take my son's picutre, thank goodness (i hope) i have noticed each time and managed to spin his pram away from the snap shot before telling them they had no right!!
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 19:33
Definitely needs reporting. This happened to my daughter several years ago, in UAE but not Dubai. When I tried to confront the person he ran, therefore IMHO guilty of something, I yelled at security to catch him and they did. He was taken to the police station, his camera destroyed. When they brought him into the same room as me, although I couldn't understand what the police were saying to hom, it was very apparent that it had been taken seriously. I left in no doubt that he would not do the same again from the fear in his face.
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EW EXPERT
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 19:17
agree - cops and held the camera till they came What nationality where they?
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 19:15
You should definitely call the police not security! this is really freaky! the police can easily see CCTV footage and bring those two men in..
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 19:13
If you didn't report it earlier, maybe you should call the security office at Ibn Battuta and just tell them what happened. That way, they can keep an eye out in case the guys come back. Maybe you scared them off for good by confronting them though. I once noticed a guy taking pictures of my stepdaghters as they were playing in a fountain at a park in the US. It made me feel instantly sick and angry. Fortunately, my husband was there and he took the guy's camera away and gave it to a nearby police officer. It turned out that he was a registered *** offender and it was illegal for him to even be in the park. Just goes to show that you can't be too careful where your kids are concerned!
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EW GURU
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 19:09
Something definitely not right. A matter for the Police. You could even BBM it ... if your Blackberry was working ... edited by guinness on 12/10/2011 That's asking a bit much I think! Al Ameen? Or Blackberry working? BB!
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EW OLDHAND
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 19:01
I would take this very seriously and follow your gut instinct only last month there was a reported attempted abduction of a 6 year old girl in one of the expat communities. Without question i would be reporting what you saw to the police and have them take control, they can look at CCTV footage and will take this very seriously i am sure. This really is quite scary stuff once you put 2 & 2 together re various incidents reported on mums grapevines. In fact exactly what you are describing was reported as happening in a school here about 18 months ago ish by parents. edited by Lolacat on 12/10/2011 totally agree. A friend of mine who used to work for UN child protection agency said this is what child traffickers do, they take pictures of potential victims, track them to find out where they live, then take the pictures to bidders. Serious stuff, and not to be taken lightly.
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EW MASTER
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 18:42
What a pity security were not called...but guess there was no time - did they scarper then? <em>edited by spongemonkey on 12/10/2011</em>
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EW OLDHAND
Latest post on 12 October 2011 - 18:25
Something definitely not right. A matter for the Police. You could even BBM it ... if your Blackberry was working ... edited by guinness on 12/10/2011 That's asking a bit much I think! Al Ameen? Or Blackberry working?
 
 

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