A campaign calling for legislation to prevent the media publishing photographs of children without parental consent has been criticised by the National Union of Journalists.

The proposal by the Campaign for Children’s Privacy has been described as “simplistic, dangerous, wrong in principle and unworkable” by the union’s photographers’ council.

The campaign follows a case concerning the taking of photographs of the children of musician Paul Weller who, along with wife Helen, has taken his privacy fight to the House of Lords.

Mail Online published seven unpixelated photographs of their children last year.

A statement by the council states: “Banning photographs of children – all children – without prior parental consent would have a chilling effect on a free press. The campaign does propose exceptions for crowd shots and photographs published in the public interest.

“Who is going to have the time, when under the pressure of daily deadlines, to decide whether or not the publication of an innocent photograph of one or more children aged under 18 can be justified, ‘in the public interest’?

“There is a general public interest in both freedom of expression and in being able to photograph society generally and in public places.”

It added: “Moreover no-one seems to have taken into account the many thousands – millions – of photographs of under-18s published daily on Facebook and other social media.  Most of which are taken by the children themselves.

“This has clearly not been thought through and changes to the law would be unnecessary and draconian and not in the interest of a free press.”