The Catholic Church is establishing better guidelines to protect the privacy of children during services.

Part of the new guidelines could be a ban on filming and photographing children without permission of parents.

Director of the Catholic Church's national office of professional standards, Bill Kilgallon says it's just the same as people not being allowed to randomly walk onto school grounds and take photos of children.

"The children have a right to privacy and that should be respected, so it would be a common sense guideline, if you like, that children's photographs are only taken with parental permission."

A ban on filming and photographing could extend to services such as Christenings and confirmation - unless photographers have the permission of parents.

Kilgallon says it's a sad state of affairs, but one that must be looked at.

"This is an issue that arises out of the need to protect children from those people who've got an unhealthy interest in children."

Kilgallon says it will be small part of a much wider set of safety guidelines for people working with children in the Church.