Jan 28, 2009

Proposed bill to make camera phones go click

New York Representative Peter King is hoping that the US will soon have a law requiring that all cameraphones make a noise when they snap a picture.

Japan and South Korea already have such laws.

King has re-introduced the so-called "Camera Phone Predator Alert Act," which was actually first introduced in 2007 but went nowhere at the time.

The bill, as the name not-so-subtly suggests, aims to prevent folks from taking cameraphone pictures without others people's knowledge by forcing the phones to make a sound that's "audible within a reasonable radius" and not able to be disabled.

Interestingly, the bill will not apply to digital cameras. Many small digital cameras are just as capable of taking “spy photos” as cameraphones.

Isn’t this a lot like the people who have been saying that silent electric cars should be made to sound like gas powered cars?

Interestingly, if cameras and cars had always been silent this would not be an issue.

Link