SINGAPORE: A woman who grew uncomfortable after seeing a sales assistant take a photo of her little girl crowdsourced ideas for how to ask someone you don’t know to delete pictures they’ve taken of your child.
“I was at a clothing store with my toddler today and I caught one of the sales assistants quietly snapping a picture of my daughter with her phone. I know she didn’t mean any harm as I overheard her mumbling the word ‘cute,’” wrote u/kouroubao on r/askSingapore on Sunday (Sept 10).
But the thought of a stranger having pictures of her child made the woman very uneasy, which prompted her to ask the sales assistant to delete the photo.
“She complied (at least, I think she did). Now in hindsight, I’m wondering if I overstepped any boundaries. Technically speaking, the lady didn’t do anything illegal. If she had denied my request, there was probably nothing I could have done either.
Fellow parents in Singapore, have you had any similar experience and what would you have done?” she added.
Reddit users were quick to assure her that she had done nothing wrong.
“No you didn’t overstep any boundaries. It doesn’t sound like you were nasty to the salesperson either, so it’s all good,” one wrote.
Another suggested that had the sales assistant declined to delete the photo, the mum could have escalated the matter to the manager. “Law or not, the customer felt uncomfortable after an experience in the shop. Management would likely ask the employee to delete it, and any sensible employee would do just that.”
One fellow parent advised her to teach her child about consent or to say no when asked.
A parent with the same experience shared her story: “It’s inappropriate to take pictures of children without asking their parents’ consent and people need to learn that.”
/TISG