If you see children performing at end-of-year concerts you will likely also see a pack of proud parents capturing the moment on their smartphones, and they are probably all breaking the law.

There is actually a range of potential pitfalls in videoing children performing, including child protection issues and the consent of other parents to have their children incidentally filmed.

Parents preparing to watch their children perform at a concert in Western Australia's Kimberley region over the weekend were told they would be breaking copyright law if they filmed their children.

Parent, lawyer and copyright expert, Fiona Phillips, said she could see how this might seem like an imposition on families, but that it can mean a fairer deal for artists.

"I can understand as a parent why you might be concerned if you're told not to video your own child," Ms Phillips said.

"Think about your average performance. There might be music, there might be scripts, there might be background scenery or costumes, as well as any choreography, and there will be separate copyrights in each of those elements."

Licence to reproduce

In the world of copyright taking a video of your child that happens to also include copyrighted music, or any other copyrighted creation, is called a reproduction and requires a licence.

The Australasian Performing Right Association and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (APRA AMCOS) is the combined music rights organisation that sells the licence to make the video of your child's performance legal.

Richard Mallett is APRA AMCOS's head of revenue and licensing, and said parents need to purchase a licence if they want to video their child dancing or singing to copyrighted material.

"When somebody makes a video of a dance performance with music, that inherently involves a reproduction of music, which requires permission that is generally given through a licence," Mr Mallet said.

APRA AMCOS sell the licences for $65, which are required whether you put the video on social media or not.

"It's required if they're just simply doing it, full stop," Mr Mallet said.

"The alternative of taking out a licence from us would be to get permission from each of the individual artists, and each of the different songwriters for each of the songs that were being performed."

Parents may be breaking the law if they video their children performing copyrighted songs. ( ABC TV )

Alternatively Mr Mallet recommended putting your smartphone away and opting to buy the video that the organiser of the performance produces.

Dance and music schools routinely buy licences for the music and other copyrighted material they use, and this can allow them to produce a video for parents to buy, while also managing the other complications that can arise.

Kathy Baykitch is the executive director of Ausdance National, the peak advocacy body for the dance sector in Australia, and said a dance school's best option is to tell parents not to video performances and instead produce a video that can be sold.

"It's important that dance studio owners ensure the integrity of their business practices, and always make sure they're upholding the proper licencing," Ms Baykitch said.

"The dance studio owner has a responsibility to ensure not only the integrity of artistic product, but also to what could happen to that film footage and to ensure that it's actually used for the proper purposes."

Being sued unlikely, not impossible

If you are thinking that it is unlikely that you will be sued for breaching copyright by videoing you child's concert, you are probably right.

But if the video unexpectedly goes viral, then we may have another dancing baby case, and you may be in trouble.

"People may remember the famous dancing baby case, where a mother videoed her kid dancing to Prince's Let's go crazy," Ms Phillips said.

The 30-second video of a baby dancing to copyrighted music was uploaded by the baby's mother to YouTube where it gained more than a million views, prompting the record label to claim a copyright infringement.

"That litigation went on for years," Ms Phillips said.

Robyn Ayres is the chief executive of the Arts Law Centre of Australia and she said she has not heard of this happening in Australia, but it does not mean it will not happen in the future.

"If the entertainment company that owns the copyright decides that they're going to crack down on this particular type of infringement, then as a parent you're potentially at risk," Ms Ayres said.

She agreed the best way to ensure laws are upheld, children are protected, and artists are paid their dues, is to buy the video produced for the performance.

"If it's a dance concert, the dance school probably has copyright in the choreography of the work that's being performed," Ms Ayres said.

"Which is one of the reason why the dance school might ask people not to video the performance."