Law Proposed to Ban Silent Cameraphones in the USA

A congressman in the USA has proposed a law which would require all camera-phones to make some sort of sound when ever the camera is used to take a photo. The law would make it illegal to include a function to disable the sound - and that the sound should be loud enough to be heard "within a reasonable radius".

The Camera Phone Predator Alert Act has been proposed by Rep. Peter King of New York.

The proposed bill states that "Congress finds that children and adolescents have been exploited by photographs taken in dressing rooms and public places with the use of a camera phone."

While the law states that the phones should not be able to have the camera sound disabled, it will almost certainly not take long for programmers to develop applications for phones which would do exactly that.

The law does not seem to apply to other forms of digital cameras - which can remain silent when taking photos - and it would be presumed that a serious offender would use tiny button sized cameras if they were determined to evade the law.

Currently, only South Korea and Japan have similar laws.

On the web: Library of Congress

Posted to the site on 1st February 2009