Photographer taking pictures of young girls on beaches prompts angry parents’ protest in St Ives – Cornwall Live

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Angry parents are holding a protest in St Ives against a photographer taking pictures of young girls in their swimwear on the town's beaches and posting them on a website.

It was revealed last week that a photographer, known only by an alias, had shared hundreds of pictures of young girls on the internet. Many were taken with a long lens without the parents' consent.

They were shared on a website called Deviant Art. Since enquiries were made of the website last week, the photographer has removed almost all the pictures of girls and replaced them with general shots of St Ives. Galleries of children listed by year, called, for instance, 'Girls 2013' have also been removed.

The police said last week that the photographer was not doing anything illegal and officers had spoken to a man in St Ives. They said they had examined his computer and did not find any indecent images.

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But parents have reacted with anger that the practice was going on in the first place, and Chloe Gold, who lives in the town, has now organised a 'silent protest'.

She said: "This is not a lynch mob and we are not targeting one person or any individual. This is about raising awareness of this issue. We've got so many people who live in St Ives in a bubble and have not realised what is going on.

"This is not about the content of the pictures either. I've had people saying to me they are not indecent images. This is about, collectively, who they belong to, who they've been taken of and how they've been used. For me, the police are not acting quickly enough and I think the law should be changed. People are very, very angry that someone can do this.

"When I first saw the website, I felt sick. To be honest, I also felt sad and, in some way, that we are all to blame for allowing this to happen. If we don't talk about this, how are our children going to talk about it?"

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She said the police had been informed of the protest and added that anyone concerned about the issues, and particularly if they feared their children may have been pictured, was welcome to join them.

The protest will be held on Tuesday at 10am on the harbour front outside The Sloop pub. A second protest is being organised by the fire station on Higher Stennack at about 5.30pm on Tuesday, for anyone who is working in the day and unable to attend the morning event.

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Cornwall Live contacted the website provider and a spokesman for Deviant Art said: "Deviant Art enjoys an excellent reputation in its cooperation with law enforcement and we will take immediate action when alerted to criminal conduct by appropriate authorities as our policies do not permit the posting of illegal and unlawful content.

"This particular user of the website has posted many photographs, the majority consisting of non-controversial subjects. We have no indication or record of criminal behaviour by this user."