Locals snapping pictures of my children?

[erina320]

Purpleflower- I would have absolutely NOT have allowed someone to hold/ carry my baby away, plane or not!

Last year when we were here for 2 months a lady tried to take my then 2 year old daughter out of my arms at the Lady's Market. I wouldn't let go of my daughters legs and the lady eventually got the point. All I could think of was this woman could disappear into one of these doorways and my sweet baby would be gone forever!

 

[Gracey]

I agree. Taking photos is annoying, but probably not dangerous or harmful.
Physically touching, holding or walking away with someone else's child without the parent's consent is dangerous. I would have shouted at her -- no matter what language -- and called the flight crew.

 

[PurpleFlower]

Very true. They could have done anything to him! :'(

 

[Leta]

Oh my I can't believe it the Chinese lady jus took ur baby without ur consent. If I were you I will definitely be very upset and tell her off straight away. I am a Chinese fr Singapore but would never do such things even though I do admire babies with big round blue eyes. They are jus so pretty )

next time pls be careful!! As I have heard lots of stories about babies and kids being stolen away..these ppl believed to be mainlanders will come up to you as "good ppl " maybe to give you a hand but they will disappear with your babies once you are not looking.. So pls be more cautious of this.

As for snapping photos of babies, me too do not understand why does ppl like to take photos of other babies? ESP when they are strangers... Maybe they jus wanna snap beautiful Pictures and put into their portfolio?? But taking several pictures at one go, this I dun understand.

But I do have an surprising experience when I was taking a walk with my then 8months old gal in Hyde park in London, there was this English couple who came up to me and said my gal is beautiful ( I was flattered of coz hahaha as I never thought that a Chinese baby would attract anyone's attention). And they actually asked for my permissions to let them take pictures of my gal. I was impressed as they had asked and of coz I let them took a couple of pictures.

 

[howardcoombs]

next time pls be careful!! As I have heard lots of stories about babies and kids being stolen away..these ppl believed to be mainlanders will come up to you as "good ppl " maybe to give you a hand but they will disappear with your babies once you are not looking.. So pls be more cautious of this.

Such things would be reported quite widely. Could you please post some links to these stories?
I've not heard of *any* stories where a mainland person has snatched a Hong Kong baby while pretending to take a picture, but I would like to read up on this more.

 

[nicolejoy]

I was going to say this earlier but changed my mind... now I'm changing it again (hehe) - but statistics show that the VAST majority of children who are taken advantage of are done so by people that their parents trust - NOT by complete strangers. I'm not saying don't be wary of strangers, but if we are wary of them, we need to be even more so with people that we know. Not to be paranoid, but to be aware. Yes, strangers shouldn't pick up our kids (I've had that happen as well, at Disney, my then one year old was just toddling around and a random lady picked her up for a photo) - BUT honestly, most of the time it is harmless - even though it is uncomfortable for us parents who are not used to that culture. Our kids have a MUCH higher risk of being hurt by people who we think we can trust. If we need to be more wary, it is with these kinds of people. Our helpers, our family, our friends... Not to be paranoid, but just to be safe.

 

[howardcoombs]

Thank you nicolejoy, a healthy and a non-paranoid approach.

I'll go one further and say in all cases it is harmless. The person who wants to harm your child will not be the one that takes their picture in Disney/OceanPark/the Beach and it certainly wont be the person approaching your child in the confines of an airplane.

The Mainlanders are just curious, nothing more. People can save themselves a lot of stress by not worrying about things that will not bring any harm.

 

[carang]

yes, thank you nicolejoy.... i thought i was the only one thinking that much of this is way over-reactive.

yes, please be careful. yes, watch your child. but, seriously.... some of the comments are just OTT.

 

[bonita]

There were many incidents of mainlanders snatching kids in HK. I'm still looking for links in English, but here's my translated version:

- at Ikea Shatin, a parent looked at a piece of furniture, turned around and found her child around 4 years old missing. Reported to staff, manager immediately shut & locked all doors. Searched throughout the store. Found the kid in one of the bathrooms about 10-15 minutes later, outfit changed & hair cut short. The manager reacted so quickly because apparently it had happened before.

- at Ocean Park, mother set her kid 3-5 years of age for a photo, walked away to take the photo, turned around to direction of kid to find a mainland woman holding her kid's hand walking away!

- on train to China, lady with a 1 year old sat across old woman with 6-8 year old kid. Old woman was very nice & asked all sorts of question about the baby: name, where she was born, how much formula she is eating etc. Old woman offered to watch baby while lady went to bathroom, lady refused. Lady used a baby carrier when getting off train. Old woman offered lady a ride & help with luggage to a more quiet area of train station. All of a sudden, old woman tried to pull baby out of baby carrier, thanking lady for helping her carry her grand daughter. Even the little boy chimed in saying "give me back my baby sister!" Old woman kept screaming out the "facts" about the little one to prove her relationship with the baby as a crowd has gathered around. Lady's relatives showed up & asked if old woman knows the kids name. Luckily, the lady gave out her son's name on the train instead of her daughters. Lady finally got away from the crazy crowd safely with her baby.

 

[howardcoombs]

No need for English links, please post the Chinese links.

I'm assuming, at least with the first 2 stories, as they happened in Hong Kong these would have been reported by reputable Hong Kong media organisations.