Outrage as parents are forced to buy $80 ‘media passes’ so they can take pictures of their own children playing junior footy
- Canterbury-Bankstown Junior Rugby League has introduced ‘media passes’
- The licences require a Working With Children Check and cost parents $80
- Eligible parents are issued a photo ID card which allows them to take pictures
- ‘I love it – anything that is helping to protect our children,’ one mother said
- But children’s safety expert Dr Joanne Orlando labelled move as ‘extreme’
Parents who want to take photos of their children playing junior sport will have to fork out $80 for ‘media passes’.
Sydney’s Canterbury-Bankstown District Junior Rugby League competition recently introduced the licences, which requires applicants to undergo a Working With Children Check.
‘I love it – anything that is helping to protect our children,’ a mother of a Chester Hill Hornets player told The Daily Telegraph.
Parents who pass the WWCC are issued a photo identification card, allowing them to take pictures.
Parents who want take photos of their own children playing junior sport are being forced to pay $80 for ‘media passes’ (stock image: Johnathan Thurston plays with a group of Juniors at a Rugby League Clinic)
Moorebank Rams, a junior club based in the city’s south-west, said the media passes will show which team licence holders are allowed to photograph.
‘Video cannot be posted to YouTube or any public social media platform,’ the club warned parents.
‘As a courtesy you must present yourself to the Ground Manager and let them know you have a media pass and are filming/photographing the game.’
Dr Joanne Orlando, a children’s safety researcher from the University of Western Sydney, labelled the move as ‘extreme’.
‘It opens up a bit of a can of worms in terms of the club processes,’ she told the paper.
‘Who is going to police who has a media pass? Is it a volunteer? What if it is grandma and she only comes once a year and wants to take a photo on that day?’
![Moorebank Rams, a junior club based in the city's south-west, said the media passes will show which team licence holders are allowed to photograph](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/07/17/03/4E53B00000000578-5960707-image-a-2_1531793832283.jpg)
Moorebank Rams, a junior club based in the city’s south-west, said the media passes will show which team licence holders are allowed to photograph
Taking photos of children in a public place is not illegal in New South Wales, but venues which host sporting events can ban people from taking pictures.
The move comes after the Canterbury-Bankstown Junior league imposed $100 fines for players wearing the wrong socks.
The freshly appointed Canterbury Junior Rugby League competition manager, Nathan Mairleitner, said that they are raising standards in the hope that playing numbers increase.
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