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When my baby girl was 3 days old, I checked into a confinement centre in KL (named removed). It was a nice place, tucked into a service apartment with a stunning view of the sprawling KL city.
I had gotten a good deal; their mother’s day promotion saved me tons of cash. Walking into the upscale unit reminiscent of a hotel, I anticipated a month of pampering, recovery, and relaxation.
As I entered my room with my infant in my arms, the supervisor took her from me. She led us to the king-sized bed where she placed my baby girl.
She told me: “This is our procedure.” Then, without further explanation, she took out her phone and pulled out her camera app.
Seeing this, I started to feel uncomfortable. I wanted to ask, “What are you doing?” but kept silent. Looking back, I wish I had said something.
She proceeded to remove all my baby’s clothing, including her diapers. My baby lay on the bed, bare, unaware of what was about to occur.
Then, the supervisor took a video of my baby’s unclothed body.
My discomfort grew into full-blown horror. I was so shocked, it took a while to speak.
“I am not comfortable with this…” I stuttered weakly, fighting back an emotion I couldn’t place then. I felt something was wrong, but I didn’t know how to explain it.
Noticing my pained expression, she explained:
“Don’t worry, I will keep the video to myself. I won’t share it with anybody.”
But this woman missed the point entirely.
My baby’s consent was violated because she didn’t ask first
Image via Wafiq
I have put language to the feeling now — violation. I felt violated on behalf of my baby.
The problem wasn’t that she didn’t explain her intentions to shoot a video of my baby’s body. It was that she didn’t ask for permission to shoot a video of my baby’s body in the first place.
Before taking the video, there should have been an explanation of what the procedure was, how the procedure would be conducted, and why the procedure was necessary.
Later, I found out that the confinement center does this just to protect them in case a customer wants to sue them for negligence. But even if she had explained it then, she should have let me decide if I wanted to proceed with the video.
Basically, consent was not given. This is true even when it’s the body of your baby.
This supervisor probably does not think it right to take an adult’s nude without permission (I hope!), but she took the liberty with a baby. To me, this is extremely disturbing.
The video could fall into the wrong hands
What worries me most is that now she has a collection of baby videos on her phone – all of them unclothed.
The content on her phone could easily fall into the wrong hands:
- A hacker who uses the images for child p***ography.
- The staff at a repair workshop.
- Some thief who steals her phone.
- A friend who randomly scrolls through her picture gallery.
- Many phones do automatic cloud backups, which can easily be hacked by anyone on the internet.
Basically, these videos could become a p***phile’s treasure chest — and now my baby’s video has been added to the list.
What Malaysia’s laws say about taking videos of people without their consent
Image via World of Buzz
Under Section 5 of the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA), personal data (including images or videos), can only be collected with the consent of the individual, unless the collection is exempted under the law.
That means obtaining images or videos without consent may be considered a violation of privacy rights.
After that incident, I told the woman to delete the video the next day, and to her credit, she did delete it.
The rest of the stay was relatively pleasant, but that moment she whipped out her camera phone still haunts me, keeping me up at night sometimes.
Malaysia still has a long way to go when it comes to understanding consent especially when it comes to taking photos without consent.
Do you have a personal story to share? Email us at hello@inreallife.my
For more articles on consent, read When I Was 5, I Hated Being Hugged By Adults. Now I Understand It Was Because I Didn’t Consent and Consent Is Essential – Here’s How You Can Incorporate It In Your Daily Life.
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