New Law Will Require Camera Phones to ‘Click’

By Michael Horton •  Updated: 01/06/09 •  2 min read

A new bill is being introduced called, Camera Phone Predator Alert Act, which would require any mobile phone containing a digital camera to sound a tone whenever a photograph is taken with the camera’s phone. It would also prohibit such a phone from being equipped with a means of disabling or silencing the tone.

While it is a good gesture, I do not believe having such a law would deter criminals from hacking their camera phones to take pictures in inappropriate ways. Also, the real criminals would not even use a camera phone but would probably use other devices such as a hidden camera. Regardless, at least with the bill signed into law it would allow prosecution and jail time for individuals that get caught with a camera phone that does not make a noise.

One question does remain, what if you have a camera phone that doesn’t make the noise at all or is suppressible? Would older phones still be covered under this new law?

Update:

The bill did not progress beyond debate, never came up for a vote, and was not enacted in the 111th Congress (2009–2010).

Thankfully, legislation not passed by the end of a Congress is cleared from the books.