Petition calls for law against beach photographs taken without consent
A woman is calling for tighter laws after bikini photos of her were taken by a stranger on a Cornish beach
A petition has launched calling for a new law to make it illegal for strangers to take photos of people on a beach without consent.
The woman, who set up the campaign, spotted a man taking pictures of her at Porthminster Beach, St Ives, finding zoomed in images of her in a bikini on the person's camera.
She's campaigning for a law specifically for photos purposefully taken of individual people.
Alicia Holmes, who created the petition page, wrote: "Degrading, vulnerable and angry is how individuals feel when a stranger takes multiple photos of them. No matter what age or gender.
"People should be able to go onto the beach feeling safe, not thinking a stranger will be taking photos of them. Photos taken on the beach in swimwear should be illegal if taken without consent and the victim is unaware. If photos are evidently of an individual person, not a casual beach photo."
One beachgoer we spoke to in St Ives said: "There are people out there who would deliberately do that and I think that it is sick. A law would be great but how would you police it?
"We need to think about safeguarding children but we need to think about where it would end and how it would be enforced with modern technology."
The petition hopes to protect individuals and young people from having unsolicited photos taken of them on a public beach and calls for the images to added to the same law as voyeurism and upskirting.