Bizarre incident in Finglas

Thursday February 09, 2006 10:44

by John O'Neill - ISN (personal capacity)

Unauthorised filming of schoolchildren

Yesterday an incident occured in St Canices Boys School between 10.45 and 11.00am when the boys were in the school playground during their break

A number of men were observed on the foothpath along the school railing filming pupils. The Principal of the school, Brendan Kelly was immediately contacted by staff and alerted to the situation and confronted the 'film crew' telling them that they were breaking the law as they had no parental consent to film the children and to stop immediately.

The men ignored the demand of the Principal and continued filming and refused to explain who they were or why they were filming. They were throwing children in the play area chocolate bars to encourage them over to the railings where they could film them close up. Two of the men were dressed in Panto clothing to intice the children over to the camera.

The Gardai arrived two of the men sped away and were chased. The remainder were questioned. The Gardai confiscated the film and the bars advising the principal that they were "treating the incident seriously".

I can only assume it was an attempt to promote a new chocolate bar by some group in advertising trying to 'cut corners' hopefully nothing more sinister. It is totally unacceptable for children to be filmed or photographed without parential/guardian consent.

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Comments (2 of 2)

ageist

by aao - aao

Mon Dec 29, 2008 18:19

Fuck you ageist prick. Whats next? "it is totally unacceptable for blacks to be filmed without permission form their owners?"

too foolish

by brendan

Thu Feb 09, 2006 12:45

That sounds like some badly planned experiential marketing or since they were filming it market research done on the cheap, perhaps to present as evidence of childrens response to the bars, any agencies i worked for in the past however would have been well aware that they couldnt do that sort of thing, more like the sort of thing that advertising students would do as part of a project because like all students you have to come up with something proffessional looking on zero resources. I remember fondly being chased out of stephens green for trying to film an idea for an ad with some other students, we were never told you needed permission. They might have thought that since they were filming in a public place (the footpath) that they were in the clear just like tabloid journalists are allowed take pictures into others property.

If it was a college it shouldnt be too hard to find out who, only a few courses in the country and often the projects are sponsored by whatever is the focus of the project, so if it was a new cadbury bar find out if a course has a project sponsored by cadbury etc.

If for no other reason than peace of mind that it wasnt something more seedy you should find this out, that and telling a college to explain the rules more clearly and maintain their good image will stop it happening again

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Bizarre incident in Finglas

Comments (2 of 2)