Queensland swimming pools: Civil rights expert pans photography policy

A QUEENSLAND swimming pool operator, with 22 venues across the state, is drawing anger over its policy requiring parents to get permission to photograph their own children.

A CIVIL rights expert has described a swimming pool policy to check photos taken on guest devices as grossly excessive.

Belgravia Leisure pools has a policy that involves parents signing a consent form to take photos and wearing a lanyard, The Gympie Times says.

Two guests at the company’s Gympie pool said staff would then check the photos they had taken before they left the centre.

Lawyer and Australian Council for Civil Liberties president Terry O’Gorman slammed the policy as “an infringement on the privacy of the vast majority of people doing the right thing”.

“We really have to avoid the situation where we become a nation of spies because we’re paranoid about paedophilia,” he said.

“The real way of dealing with the problem is a commonsense approach.”

Parents are required to sign a consent form and wear a lanyard to take photographs of their children at Gympie’s Aquatic Recreation Centre.

Mr O’Gorman said the company had no right to ask for or to see any photos, and if a guest had concerns about someone taking inappropriate pictures they should first speak to the person themselves, or then seek help from pool staff.

While he accepted that parents would have concerns for their children, he said questionable behaviour could be easily managed by vigilant staff.

One mum who attended Gympie’s Aquatic Recreation Centre said she just wanted to take a few pictures of her teenage son on the slide and it felt like an invasion of privacy.

“I can understand where they’re coming from, but it just seems ridiculous that you need a consent form for your own child,” she said.

Another Gympie woman who wanted to snap a few photos of her grandchildren said the policy “took the shine off” her family’s trip to the pool.

“You’re sitting there watching the children and you’re going, oh there’s a photo, and there’s another one, but you can’t take them unless you sign a form, wear a lanyard and let someone you’ve never met before look through the photos on your phone before you leave,” she said.

Belgravia Leisure, which manages the pool for Gympie Regional Council, has 22 pools across Queensland listed on its website.

A Belgravia spokeswoman said the policy was in place to prevent the misuse of cameras at the facility, particularly given the growth of social media.

“We take community safety and privacy seriously and as such have a process in place to manage appropriate photography within the centre,” she said.

“Photography in changerooms is strictly prohibited at all Belgravia Leisure managed facilities.”

She said ARC guests who wanted to take photos were asked to register their intent at the front desk.

They would then be issued a lanyard to “identify they have followed the centre policy and staff don’t need to raise the issue again” with them.

“As they return their lanyard, it is common for us to quickly sight the photos to make sure that other patrons, especially children are not identifiable in the background,” she said.