‘Candid camphones’ banned

SOME schools in America have moved to ban mobile camera phones, following the proliferation of internet sites filled with pictures shot surreptitiously in public bathrooms, locker rooms and other places.

Many schools have banned the phones and politicians in states including Iowa and Colorado are considering their own measures to protect against the “candid camphone.”

“It’s part of the next step of society. Almost everything you do, there’s a chance that somebody’s going to be recording it,” says Jim Barry, spokesman for the Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group.

Already, some education chiefs will not allow camera phones on school grounds.

Several YMCAs and other athletic clubs have also begun insisting that members keep camera phones at home or in their cars.

Debbie Goodson, a San Franciscan whose gym recently put signs about its ban up in locker rooms said she had hoped signs would be unnecessary, but she said: “I guess it’s a reflection of the world we’re living in today.”