Is it legal to video & post kids over to play with my kids in my home with no consent

[Charles442]

Is it legal to video & post kids over to play with my kids in my home with no consent

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? PA

I run a vlog. I film the kids. They love it. I know in public places, when their friends come up to the car or say hi in a public place or just random kids at park, I can post with no permission. But what about when playmates comes over to our house and we film for the vlog? They kids all know it's for the vlog. Do I need to get permission every time from every kids parent to post on our vlog? Also what about when a neighbor kid come over to play in our own yard?

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? PA

I run a vlog. I film the kids. They love it. I know in public places, when their friends come up to the car or say hi in a public place or just random kids at park, I can post with no permission. But what about when playmates comes over to our house and we film for the vlog? They kids all know it's for the vlog. Do I need to get permission every time from every kids parent to post on our vlog? Also what about when a neighbor kid come over to play in our own yard?

You should have permission from the parents/legal guardians of all children you videotape, prior to publication. You must be careful about capturing audio on your videos.

 

[justalayman]

From what I could find it is illegal under PA law to record oral communications unless you have permission or there is no expectation of privacy. You might find yourself in jail arguing there was no expectation of privacy in the situations you are recording the children. It can vary widely, even within a house.

And that has nothing to do with publishing the recording. The act of recording itself is the crime.


I suggest you have proof the parents of any child you record allow this prior to recording them. I can say from a personal perspective I would not be happy discovering you had recorded my children in a private setting after the fact. It tends to make one wonder if that is all that is being recorded.

 

[quincy]

From what I could find it is illegal under PA law to record oral communications unless you have permission or there is no expectation of privacy. You might find yourself in jail arguing there was no expectation of privacy in the situations you are recording the children. It can vary widely, even within a house.

And that has nothing to do with publishing the recording. The act of recording itself is the crime.


I suggest you have proof the parents of any child you record allow this prior to recording them. I can say from a personal perspective I would not be happy discovering you had recorded my children in a private setting after the fact. It tends to make one wonder if that is all that is being recorded.

Minors cannot legally consent to the recording.

Publishing any recording of children without express authorization from the parents/guardians would be asking for a lawsuit.

 

[Charles442]

You should have permission from the parents/legal guardians of all children you videotape, prior to publication. You must be careful about capturing audio on your videos.

Ok but not in a public place right? I mean I can't get permission everyone in a park, etc.

 

[Charles442]

From what I could find it is illegal under PA law to record oral communications unless you have permission or there is no expectation of privacy. You might find yourself in jail arguing there was no expectation of privacy in the situations you are recording the children. It can vary widely, even within a house.

And that has nothing to do with publishing the recording. The act of recording itself is the crime.


I suggest you have proof the parents of any child you record allow this prior to recording them. I can say from a personal perspective I would not be happy discovering you had recorded my children in a private setting after the fact. It tends to make one wonder if that is all that is being recorded.

OK, so in public fine but at my house or if a kid comes along for a ride in the car to go to the park, no in the car unless the parents says, but at the park, I can without any permission? At the house when over to play I must get a verbal consent? I mean to ask every parent to sign a paper may be a pain. I guess if they say no to filming their kid, I blur the face? This is tough. The kids have tons of playmates. Thanks for your initial answer. It helped.

 

[Charles442]

Minors cannot legally consent to the recording.

Publishing any recording of children without express authorization from the parents/guardians would be asking for a lawsuit.

Thank you. I'm thinking covering the face or blurring in editing prior to posting. But what about audio with a face blurred?

 

[quincy]

Ok but not in a public place right? I mean I can't get permission everyone in a park, etc.

If an individual being videotaped/photographed in a public place is one of many individuals in the public area and the individual is incidental to the videotape/photograph as a whole, you should not have a legal issue with the videotaping/photographing (although you might still find someone objecting to you taking their picture).

For example, videotaping a crowd at a football game generally would not require permission of all of the football fans, although many venues will have as a condition of purchase of a ticket to an event a release of rights given to the venue (for promotional, advertising uses). In addition, in the case of an event like a football game, additional legal issues can come if you videotape without permission of the venue.

A lot depends on your intended use of the videotape. In all cases, you should make no commercial use of your videotapes without releases from those clearly pictured (identified or identifiable).

If you intend to focus on any one identifiable individual, you should get permission from that individual prior to photographing that individual and definitely prior to publishing the video. If you cannot obtain permission from an individual that is focused on in a video, you are best off not using that portion of the video.

Videotaping in a public place will not be as much of a problem as audiotaping because capturing conversations to which you are not a party violates the law in most states.

When you are videotaping children, in a public place or in your backyard, and with or without an audio recording to go along with the video recording, your taping is going to raise a lot of red flags. You might find the police are contacted and your videotapes seized. For this reason, having prior consent from the parents/guardians of all children you intend to videotape can be important. If a parent/guardian tells you that you cannot photograph/videotape their child, you do not photograph or videotape their child.

I recommend you have your plans to videotape children personally reviewed by an attorney in your area of Pennsylvania. In other words, I can see problems with what you describe.

 

[ShyCat]

What the heck is your obsession with videotaping children playing? Occasional recording of your own children make for great home movies. Beyond that, it seems a little creepy.

 

[quincy]

What the heck is your obsession with videotaping children playing? Occasional recording of your own children make for great home movies. Beyond that, it seems a little creepy.

I think the "creepiness" factor comes in whenever someone suggests videotaping children who are not their own.

Blurring faces will not work to protect a videographer/photographer from a legal action and blurring faces of individuals who are speaking does not make an audiotape of a conversation any more legal. Specifics matter.

The bottom line is that permission needs to be granted by the parent/guardian before a minor is videotaped/photographed or audiotaped. If a parent/guardian says "no" to the recording, there should be no recording.

Charles442 should really sit down with an attorney in his area to personally discuss and review his vlog. Charles might want to change his vlog's focus from other people's children (which is bound to cause legal difficulties) to random animals and inanimate objects (which probably won't).

 

[Charles442]

I think the "creepiness" factor comes in whenever someone suggests videotaping children who are not their own.

Blurring faces will not work to protect a videographer/photographer from a legal action and blurring faces of individuals who are speaking does not make an audiotape of a conversation any more legal. Specifics matter.

The bottom line is that permission needs to be granted by the parent/guardian before a minor is videotaped/photographed or audiotaped. If a parent/guardian says "no" to the recording, there should be no recording.

Charles442 should really sit down with an attorney in his area to personally discuss and review his vlog. Charles might want to change his vlog's focus from other people's children (which is bound to cause legal difficulties) to random animals and inanimate objects (which probably won't).

Thank you. I've already taken a video of a parent saying yes! BTW the focus is not on other children. It's on my children about 98% of the time and other kids about 2% (now if they parent says yes). Like a visiting friend, etc. Thanks again for your valuable advise.

 

[Silverplum]

Thanks for recovering your general public manners, Charles.

(yes, I saw your post before you rewrote it)

 

[Charles442]

What the heck is your obsession with videotaping children playing? Occasional recording of your own children make for great home movies. Beyond that, it seems a little creepy.

It's a family vlog. Not occasional kids playing or birthday parties. You haven't heard of vlogging? It's daily posts to Youtube.

 

[Charles442]

Thanks for recovering your general public manners, Charles.

(yes, I saw your post before you rewrote it)

. I apologize. I sometimes write out what I'm feel, then quickly change it. Bottom line is, this is a wholesome, family vlog that gets posted to youtube in the vain of Shaytard. I just wanted to know if i needed to painstakingly get every parents permission from every kid that crossed our paths. Apparently so. Thank you for monitoring this valuable forum.

 

[quincy]

Thank you. I've already taken a video of a parent saying yes! BTW the focus is not on other children. It's on my children about 98% of the time and other kids about 2% (now if they parent says yes). Like a visiting friend, etc. Thanks again for your valuable advise.

Although I did not have the benefit of seeing your pre-edit post and can only guess from Silverplum's post what was said (), I thank you for the "thanks."

I think you are smart to get permission from the parents prior to videotaping and publishing your videos of their children.