This picture is anything but perfect!

Two weeks ago Amelia* came home and showed her mother some pictures of her on Facebook.

The only thing was; this was not Amelia’s Facebook account. The pictures were on a page belonging to a photographer that Amelia had met on the beach – a random stranger that approached her and her friend and sweet-talked them into allowing him to snap pictures of them in their bikinis. Amelia is 13-years-old and her friend a year older at 14. 

Shocked by the very “sexy” types of poses that Amelia and her friend were in, Amelia’s mother looked further on the “photographer’s” page. She found a slew of young girls on the page, some as young as 9 years old. 

Amelia’s mother had not granted consent for these pictures to be taken.

In fact, her 13 year old daughter had been warned of this kind of stranger danger, but was seduced by what Amelia describes as a “very friendly man who said he’s not like other guys who are up to no good when they ask young girls to take their picture.”  

I took up the story after being approached by Amelia’s mother. 

My first stop was calling the photographer. After 3 attempts that went unanswered he finally picked up. What ensued was a lengthy chat in which he claimed he didn’t think what he did was wrong.

He agreed that he should have asked permission from the parents but claimed the girls consented to the images being captured. He didn’t grasp that, as minors, they couldn’t legally give their permission to be placed in this position.

He denied that he told them he was from the now closed down South African FHM Magazine, but claimed he was working with Glamorous Models in Durban to set up an agency and photography studio here. He then refused a right to an on-air reply and cut the call. 

I phoned Glamorous Models owner Warren Morck who says he had been approached by this photographer but nothing ever came of their discussions. Morck says he would never sanction photographs to be taken of minors without parental consent. 

I also contacted former pictures editor for FHM South Africa Peter Peigl, who said these kinds of lascivious men often posed as photographers claiming to be from the title and captured pictures of young girls for their own personal use.  

Would you, as a parent, ever consent to these kinds of pictures being taken of your children? Have you had a similar incident happen?

In case you missed the show: Take a listen to this morning's #GoodBadUgly 

You can contact Terence Pillay by following @terencepillay1 on Twitter or email him at [email protected]