Nativity film ban at Norfolk school

There are fears that paedophiles could obtain the film

A primary school in Norfolk has joined the growing number around the country in banning cameras at its nativity play on Wednesday.

Pupils at Homefield First School at Bradwell near Great Yarmouth, performed their play at St Nicholas' Church for an audience of around 300.

School governors said it would have been impossible to ensure any filmed material did not end up in the hands of paedophiles.

But Ray Wyre, a criminologist based in Milton Keynes, said: "It actually is abusive of children if you cannot record a family's history which is so important for children to be able to do."

About 300 people were at St Nicholas' Church

The Reverend Ron Tuck, a governor of Homefield School, said the decision had been taken with parents' and children's best interests at heart.

"A number of parents felt uneasy that their child was being videoed or photographed.

"We felt that this year we would have to say 'no videos', as the only option really would be for a child to be withdrawn from the production and we didn't feel that was fair."

But such a measure is still a minority view.

Susan Banbury of Bawdeswell County Primary said parents were welcome to take pictures at the school's forthcoming play.

Harmless pictures

"Our governing body here has actually decided not to have a website in which children are portrayed because we are aware of the dangers of paedophiles clicking on to websites.

"But we feel that these are the parents filming their own children and we really can't see the harm."

Mr Wyre, who specialises in the study of sexual crimes, agreed that some paedophiles will get pictures of children from apparently harmless sources such as holiday brochures.

But he warned against "paranoia", saying: "We can't drop to the lowest common denominator and ban all images of children.

"It would be a dangerous road to go down."