By Raymart Escopel
Taking a selfie is a norm these days. One has to simply look around and you will see people striking their best poses in front of their smartphones.
Selfies are best known to be taken when situated at a new place or when bumping into known personalities.
However, selfies can now be a criminal offense as a bill in the Congress seeks to block photos taken with no permission or authority.
The Protection against Personal Intrusion Act also known as House Bill 4807, is now ready for 3rd reading in plenary. The bill prohibits “capturing by a camera or sound recording instrument of any type of visual image, sound recording or other physical impression of the person.”
It also includes acts of “trespassing on private property in order to capture any type of visual image, sound recording or other physical impression of any person” and/or “capturing any type of visual image, sound recording or other physical impression of a person or family activity through the use of a visual or auditory enhancement device even when no physical trespass has occurred, when the visual image, sound recording or other physical impression could not have been captured without a trespass if no enhancement device was used.”
House Bill 4807 is authored by Congressmen Rufus Rodriguez, Maximo Rodriguez, Jorge Almonte, Gwendolyn Garcia, Linabelle Ruth Villarica, Lito Atienza and Leopoldo Bataoil.
The emergence of the bill has earned a lot of raised eyebrows from the masses. They say this kind of bill with no importance should not be given any priority. They also encouraged lawmakers to focus on issues of poverty, graft and corruption rather than spending time on the anti-selfie bill.
The proposed bill does not put a limit on someone’s dosage of selfies taken. It however plans to regulate the habit to protect the privacy and the right of the people./PN
