AITA for grabbing a teen’s arm after he tried to take a photo of me without permission?

A Reddit user recounts an incident at the beach where a teenage boy tried to take her photo without permission. Acting on instinct, she grabbed his arm and demanded he delete the picture, leading to backlash from the boy’s parents, who accused her of overreacting. While her husband supported her actions, her sister thought grabbing his arm was crossing a line. Now, she’s questioning whether she was wrong. Read the full story below to form your opinion.

‘ AITA for grabbing a teen’s arm after he tried to take a photo of me without permission?’

I’m 28F and last weekend I went to a public beach with my husband, 30M with our two children. While setting up our picnic area, I could notice how close some teenage boys standing nearby that were playing loudly and messing around with their phones. I did not think much of it until I felt the presence of one of them standing very close to me.

I heard a shutter sound as the boy straightened his arm to take my picture, pointing the phone straight at me. I instinctively reached out and snatched his arm, telling him to delete the photo. He started laughing and told me to “chill out.” My husband came over to back me up at this point, but the other boys by then had begun shouting that I was “assaulting” their friend.

A lifeguard finally came and intervened, I explained to the them what had happened. The kid was asked to delete the photo, which he reluctantly did, but his parents who arrived at that moment were furious with me. They said that I had no right to grab his son’s arm and that he was “just kidding.”

My husband says I did the right thing, but my sister said when she heard what happened that I shouldn’t have touched the boy and that I overreacted. Now I’m wondering whether I made a mistake for that. AITA?

Here’s the comments of Reddit users:

Whippasnapa02 −  You should of just screamed on top note ARGHHHHH THIS P**VERT IS TAKING PICTURES OF ME!! While pointing directly at him.

yuffie2012 −  No. NTA. The kid’s parents are however.

lilmattress −  People who are “just kidding” in these sorts of interactions can rarely explain what that means.

newusernamebcimdumb −  The kid is TA but just for your own legal self protection I wouldn’t be touching/grabbing anyone, a minor especially.

jazzypeachtrees −  Legal or not, NTA. If that kid fucked with the wrong person, he would have been left not able to speak. He’s lucky you did what you did. Either way, predators deserve to be fucked up even if it’s illegal. This isn’t “is this legal” this is, am I the a**hole. Standing up for yourself the way you did does not make you an a**hole

Upper-Ad-1787 −  Legally you could be in trouble. If you’re in a public place you cannot stop someone from taking your photo. It sucks I get it.

OGStrong −  Next time, take a video of him right back with your own phone and call him a p**vert. He’ll be internet famous if he doesn’t comply.

NoctHalo −  NTA, but next time just call him out loudly.

DoctaPurp −  Morally, I agree with what you did. Legally, I believe that is a**ault or could be some kind of charge.

JimmyLizzardATDVM −  NTA. You should have screamed out ‘p**vert’ – ‘this man’s taking photos of women without their consent’. Also that kid likely acts like that because they have parents that are that behaviour and just completely accept it. My parents would have forced me to apologise, delete the photo and then I would have been grounded or at least a severe talking to.