There must be a lot of perverts in this country for us as nation to cause, the Camera Phone Predator Alert Act (H.R. 414), to be introduced to Congress last month. The bill falls under the domain of the Consumer Product Safety. The act will require any mobile phone with a digital camera to make a sound, a tone or click whenever a photograph is taken with the camera’s phone. It also prohibits phones from being equipped with a means of disabling or silencing the tone.

Now, I think this leads us to believe Americans are now being treated like children. Sure there are a bunch of old-men perverts and people trying to catch a juicy picture for self-pleasure or the internet, but come on!

And just how loud will this “click” be? According to the bill the cell phone must release a “tone or other sound audible within a reasonable radius of the phone.” What exactly is a “reasonable radius?” A couple feet, a couple yards, meters, kilometers? Can you imagine how loud or distracting it will get during sports games or concerts when fans want to capture great moments? It’s enough we already have flash which can possibly blind performers but now we need to deafen them as well? The bill was introduced into Congress by Representative Peter King, Republican of New York. The grounds for the bill is that “children and adolescents have been exploited by photographs taken in dressing rooms and public places with the use of a camera phone.”

So this is the solution? How about just looking around or even locking your doors? Some people have what are called doors, walls, or even towels! Also to make matters worst, if passed the legislation would forbid manufacturers to program the option allowing consumers to disable the noise. Who knows how much this would cost phone manufacturers. What does translate into? Manufacturers would raise the prices on phones, not wanting to take the hit on the bill. Congress already passed a bill last year that would levy heavy fines and prison time for those who sneaks photos or videos of people in different stages of undress. I think that is enough for now, because otherwise we’re going to pay more as well for a feature we don’t even want.