VIC Keeping Video Surveillance Footage of Children - Legal under Privacy Laws?

[daffodil]

Hi everyone,
I work as a Nanny and the next door neighbour to my employers has video surveillance going 24/7. Under Privacy Laws, is he allowed to capture and keep footage of the children who are all 15 years old and under? This has come about because they occasionally lob a ball over his fence whilst playing. He no longer returns any of the balls and often tells my employer that he has video footage of her kids in his front yard retrieving balls.

 

[Sophea]

Recording and keeping surveillance of children is not necessarily prohibited under state or federal law, however depending on the circumstances it may constitute stalking behaviour or an offence under the Surveillance Devices legislation in your state.

Stalking includes keeping a person under surveillance - however in this case since its not one child that is being targeted, so may not apply. Legislation in most states prohibits the installation, use and maintenance of listening devices and optical surveillance devices to record private activities without the express or implied consent of each party to the activity. I'm not sure if this would constitute private activity - it generally does not include circumstances where the parties should reasonably expect they would be observed.