THE name Phan Thi Kim Phúc may not mean anything but to people of a certain age, they will probably be more familiar with ‘Napalm Girl’. She was the subject of a famous and dramatic picture, one of the most memorable of the Vietnam War.

The picture, taken by Nick Ut of The Associated Press, showed

nine-year-old Kim Phúc running down a road, naked, near Trảng Bàng after a South Vietnam Air Force napalm attack on her village in 1972. She had life-threatening burns to her arms and back and the image was so powerful and haunting, it helped to harden public opinion in America against US involvement in the war.

In fact, America officially withdrew from the war a year later.

After taking his picture, Ut and fellow journalists helped Kim Phúc, pouring water on her burns and getting her to hospital.

That’s the power of photography.

But now everyone is a photographer and videographer, thanks to the ubiquitous smartphone.

Yes, you can post videos of your little TikTok dance or your cat doing something silly but videos can still be a force for good and maybe have a similar impact to Nick Ut’s Napalm Girl image.

The death of George Floyd in Minnesota under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer is a classic example. Floyd’s death may have been just another statistic had the incident not been filmed on a smartphone, allowing the whole world to see and hear exactly what had taken place.

So hopefully, we’ve established that there are times and places when taking a photo or video is a good thing.

But where do we draw the line? When is taking that photo or that video very much the wrong thing to do?

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the 50 motorists who are now facing prosecution after they were seen filming the aftermath of a fatal motorway crash on their mobile phones.

The incident dates back to July 8 when a driver died in a collision involving three HGVs on the M6 near Knutsford.

Now Cheshire Police are taking action, posting on social media: “On July 8 our @CheshireRCU for the North West Motorway Police Group were dealing with a fatal collision on the M6 Southbound.

“To the 48 People seen/witnessed videoing the incident from their hand-held mobile phones on the northbound carriageway whilst passing the incident, your details have now been provided to us and a letter of prosecution is in the post to you.

“It is an offence to use a hand-held mobile phone whilst driving.

“Furthermore, it is insensitive to video the scene of such a devastating incident where by family, colleagues, friends may well not be aware of the incident. #BeRespectfulalways.

Personally, I hope the courts throw the book at these ghouls.

What good did they expect to come of this? What were they hoping to achieve? I wonder whether a few more Insta likes or Facebook shares was worth it.

Sometimes you really do have to wonder what sort of society we have created for ourselves where people think it’s OK to film a fatal collision.

The police described it as ‘insensitive’ and I think they were very restrained in their choice of words.

And finally, and on a completely different topic, I would like to say a big person thank you to the Guardian’s digital reporter Sarah McGee who reported on a survey done on behalf of a chain of vets surgeries.

Very helpfully the survey compiled a list of beaches across the country that are considered ‘dog friendly’.

I will find this list very useful and I will certainly be consulting it before my next trip to the seaside – so I know which beaches to avoid like the plague.

Yes, I know dog owners won’t thank me for this but if I had my way, dogs would be banned from all beaches everywhere.