My husband and I live in front of some people who have been making life very difficult to say the least. They have 5 children and the children are not permitted on our property by way of a protection order given to my 16 year old son by these people. My husband and I have put up a security camera system outside our home due to these people. The 5 children were very recently playing in our backyard. Where they were playing at the camera could not catch it so my husband took a picture with his camera of the children playing in our backyard. The neighbors called the police. Nothing has been said to us, but I want to know, is that illegal for my husband to take of the children when he was inside our house and the children were in our backyard?

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Originally Posted by lchoate

... the children are not permitted on our property by way of a protection order given to my 16 year old son by these people. ...

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A court order prohibiting their children from entering your property was served on your son? Who asked the court to issue this order and why did they need to serve it on your family?

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Originally Posted by lchoate

... is that illegal for my husband to take of the children when he was inside our house and the children were in our backyard?

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No, of course not. He can take pictures of whatever he wants in his back yard (unless, of course it were child pornography).

Not at all. However there is a question about the boundaries of your yard. Are they clearly marked? Is it fenced off?

You need to make sure that the properly line if completely marked, so there is no doubt. In fact you should also add no trespassing signs.

But you may take photos outside of your backyard and in any direction you want. Same as your camera, also if your security camera is not showing the entire area, add more cameras, my neighbor across from me, has cameras on at least three sides of their home, nothing can happen in my front yard that would not be on camera, most likely if my curtains were open, the camera would see what was happening in my house.

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Originally Posted by AK lawyer

A court order prohibiting their children from entering your property was served on your son? Who asked the court to issue this order and why did they need to serve it on your family?


No, of course not. He can take pictures of whatever he wants in his back yard (unless, of course it were child pornography).

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We live in Ohio by the way, does that make a difference and no the picture was not pornography, it was just of them playing in our backyard. Thank you for a very quick response by the way.

While location usually does matter, in this case it doesn't. But I notice you didn't deal with the question about boundaries. Or the confusion about the court order.

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Originally Posted by ScottGem

While location usually does matter, in this case it doesn't. But I notice you didn't deal with the question about boundaries. Or the confusion about the court order.

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Where the children were playing at is in our yard. We rent the home and the landlord told us when we moved in where our property line ends in the back. The people behind us know this as well. The protection order is that the children are not to be in our yard or my son in theirs. My son has never gone in their yard, but they constantly are in ours and this is not the first time the police have been called about this, it is however the first time my husband has taken a picture. The fact that the children have been in our yard has been brought up to the attorney, but she is not doing much to fight for us. Not sure what to do about that, she is a public defender and I can not afford an excellent attorney.

That doesn't answer my question. Are the boundaries clearly marked? Obviously there are no fences. But if the boundaries are not clearly marked and, more importantly the angle of the photograph does not show them clearly and completely in your yard (not just on the edge), it is useless. Young children playing in an open area are not going to pay close attention to property boundaries.