Proposed Law Would Require Cell Phone Cameras to Make “Click” Sound   - 1,329 Views, 2 Comments

A new proposed Federal camera phone law would require all cell phone cameras to make a “click” sound when snapping a picture (to emulate the sound of a shutter snap), and would further require that there be no means of disabling the click sound. The proposed “Camera Phone Predator Alert Act”, introduced by Republican Congressman Peter King, from New York, is presumably aimed at reducing the instances of upskirting, and of people surreptitiously using their cell phone to snap pictures of credit cards and other identity-stealing activity.

But the title of the proposed legislation - The Camera Phone Predator Alert Act - suggests that the real target of this protecting children. The question then becomes, is this a real problem, or is it being implied in the title in order to help raise its chances of passage? Is the reason that children are taken advantage of, and end up in child porn, because they are being captured on silent cell phone cameras?

Here is the description of Mr. King’s proposed Camera Phone law:

Camera Phone Predator Alert Act - Requires any mobile phone containing a digital camera to sound a tone whenever a photograph is taken with the camera’s phone. Prohibits such a phone from being equipped with a means of disabling or silencing the tone. Treats the requirement as a consumer product safety standard and requires enforcement by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

What do you think about this?