'Camera phone backlash' already

To teens who snap and email on-the-fly photos of themselves and friends, they're just fun. But concerns about everything from children's privacy to industrial espionage are now being raised wherever "phone snappers" flock, and they're certainly not just kids. "Worldwide, more camera phones were sold last year than digital cameras - a first," the BBC reports, adding that "sales went up almost five-fold from 2002 to 84 million. In some countries, almost every model sold has a built-in camera." In Japan people can even distinguish among the postures of phone snappers, talkers, gamers, and texters (it's now almost impossible to take a sneaky photo there without people noticing). Schools, strip joints, health clubs, and corporations in many countries are banning camera phones from their premises. They're entirely banned in Saudi Arabia and frowned upon in other Mideastern countries, according to the BBC. "In the US, lawmakers are considering a bill banning so-called up-skirt photos and other forms of voyeurism." The Italian government's media watchdog has issued guidelines for camera phone use.