Justice · Court of Public Opinion

Can your neighbour fly a drone over your garden?

Most weekends a neighbour flies a small camera drone from his own garden; it crosses the fence at about 30 metres up, hovers, and its camera faces down. Next door has a pool and small children and says it is being filmed; the pilot says he is photographing the sunset and the river. A general question, not about any real family or pilot.

Side A: The sky isn't yours

Nobody owns the air above a fence. I fly where the rules let me fly, I photograph the sunset and the river, and a garden passing under the lens is not a crime.

Side B: Not over my children

A camera hovering over a pool where small children swim is not a sunset shot. Fly over the river all you like; stay out of the air above my family.

Watch the hearing and vote

What the law says: Flying is regulated; filming people at home is the limit

• United States: The federal aviation authority controls the airspace and sets rules for small drones, including registration above a weight threshold, remote identification and keeping the drone in sight. Landowners do not own the sky, but state laws on privacy, harassment and trespass apply to hovering, peeping and recording, and several states have drone-specific privacy rules.
• United Kingdom: The drone code requires keeping a safe distance from people and property that are not involved; drones with a camera, or above 250 grams, must be registered and the pilot must pass a test. Filming people in their garden engages data-protection and harassment law.
• European Union: Common rules sort drones by weight and risk, with registration for most camera drones; member states can add no-fly zones. Footage of identifiable people in private places falls under data-protection law.

General information, labelled by place, checked October 2026. Not legal advice.

An AI-generated hearing for debate and learning. Simulation, not legal advice. Every AI-made voice, face and video is labelled.