Surely any contracts don’t say that illegal acts, or safeguarding concerns can’t be reported to the authorities? It may be that the contracts are set up to protect everyone, including their
staff and business. Their staff would only be in a position to witness due to their employer putting them in that setting, and they are film crew, not social workers and not trained to recognise the difference between poor parenting and abusive parenting. I would think the contracts would state that employees need to report to their manager first, with the option to have the company support and release any footage to the authorities if needed…ensuring they stay within the law and also protecting the company’s reputation by not allowing staff to appear they are acting as whistleblowers.
Unless the issue was time-sensitive and an immediate 999 call is needed, discussing with your employer, recording your concerns via work formally, before taking action on something that isn’t a clear-cut crime caught on camera seems to be common sense.
What I’d LOVE to see happen to some of these YouTube ‘perfect’ families, is for documentary makers to catch them out intentionally. If anyone remembers Louis Theroux and Jimmy Saville, there was a revealing scene where Jimmy was speaking not realising the camera was picking up all he said. Doing covert filming, alongside the happy facade filming, would be the way to reveal the truth. In a family that size, someone at some point will say something to let that facade slip when they think it’s not being recorded. A ‘real life’ documentary about this family is what is needed, not one of them smiling on holiday in constructed scenes and Sue acting like supermum with her empty washing basket.