Clerk of the House Mary Harris, shown here dissolving Parliament in 2011, says a ban on using footage of Parliament for satire may need to be lifted.

Parliament's top official has urged MPs to "grow up" and allow the official television feed to be used to mock them.

Mary Harris, Clerk of the House, told the Privileges Committee a ban on using footage of Parliament for satire may need to be relaxed "in this day and age".

The powerful committee is considering reviewing the rules which apply to Parliament about footage in the age of social media.

Currently footage of proceedings is made available free of charge, but cannot be used in any medium for "satire, ridicule [or] denigration" or for commercial or political advertising.

Harris, whose seven-year term as Clerk ends on July 3, said the rules around satire were developed at a time when television was among the only ways of viewing Parliament, but with the proliferation of media the concerns had changed.

The rules have "been lifted in Australia [and] we borrowed our rules from Australia, and we maybe need to grow up," Harris told the committee on Wednesday.

"I don't think there's a need to shelter Members [of Parliament] any longer."

"It's difficult to police. Once or twice Speakers have brought people in and given them a bit of a lecture about it but I think it's a bit like slapping people with a wet bus ticket."

Labour MP David Parker said MPs may need protection from people who deliberately edited footage in an attempt to mislead viewers.

"There's plenty of people out there who want to misrepresent us and I wouldn't want to enable that under the claim that 'oh, I was just being satirical'."

But Harris said MPs could have a remedy for deliberately misleading editing as such footage may be contempt of Parliament.

Harris said the committee may want to consider other changes, including expanding rules around photography to cover MPs taking photos in the House, as standing orders related only to footage taken from the public and press galleries.

Official footage of Parliament should also be allowed to show MPs misbehaving, Harris said.

"If members are going to be disorderly, they should be seen to be so."

NZ First leader Winston Peters said MPs should be banned from using mobile phones to take photos in the House.

"Members are using cellphones in Parliament that are debasing the place appallingly...and they just should be banned from being used in the House."

Press Gallery chairwoman Claire Trevett told the committee the gallery backed the lifting of rules around disorder in the House, signalling that if there was an episode such as MPs brawling, the chances were media outlets may simply ignore the rules.