Proposed bill would require all cameraphones to make themselves heard
by Donald Melanson 
posted Jan 26th 2009 at 7:14PM
There's already similar laws in place in Japan and South Korea, and New York Representative Pete King is hoping that the US will soon have a law requiring that all cameraphones make a noise when they snap a picture as well. To that end, 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. Somewhat curiously, however, the bill apparently wouldn't apply to digital cameras and, as blogger Thomas Hawk points out, it also doesn't take video into account, or do anything to address the millions of camera-equipped phones currently in use that are able to snap pictures silently. No word on any movement of the bill just yet, but it has picked up one co-sponsor and, on the odd chance it actually becomes law, it'd be enforced by the Consumer Products Safety Commission.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Soulsaber @ Jan 26th 2009 11:48PM
Oh really...that won't stop me from hacking my phone to turn off the shutter myself.
000000 @ Jan 27th 2009 10:53AM
These politicians are so dumb and out of the tech loop they don't even know what the limits are or aren't... No camera's or video but camera phones only... Dumb. Waste of time and I'm sure someone has some monetary gain to benefit from some law put into place...
pheer6224 @ Jan 27th 2009 12:06AM
Would somebody please bitch slap New York Representative Pete King, I freaking hate those shutter noises on cameraphones. It's a safe bet that nobody on this planet likes their digital camera sounding like a Kodak wind up job.
Michael @ Jan 27th 2009 12:50AM
Sounds to me like even if it were passed, it would be taken up under the 1st Amendment, because it probably could be construed as a violation of free speech. If "Predators" are really that big of a problem, by now they have discovered that camera phones (as a general rule) are lackluster compared to the other cheaply available technology and would probably pose as a "photographer." I think that there are FAR more serious problems in the nation at this moment than a minimal issue, but then again maybe everyone's just lying about the worst economic situation since the Great Depression and it's all an early April Fool's joke.
RCC2k8 @ Jan 27th 2009 9:21AM
Wired or A2DP headphones would take care of hiding the sound.
egloskerry @ Jan 27th 2009 9:29PM
Are you serious? This is why politicians as a group are so disliked. They spend their time thinking up crap like this. I almost never use the camera on my phone, and I would use it even less if it made a sound.
Iphone update 2.1.3...forces the camera to make a sound!
blaxemranger @ Mar 16th 2009 11:11PM
stupid law. this article just made me turn off my shutter sound just now.