An image of a semi-naked child on Wimbledon Common has been removed from Google’s controversial photo-mapping service Street View.

The boy, aged about four or five-years-old, was captured going to the toilet with his trousers down, helped by his mother or nanny.

Google apologised last week after removing the picture within an hour of being alerted by an internet user, concerned the image would be viewed by paedophiles.

But privacy campaigners and the common’s conservators have criticised Google for allowing the image to appear online even though the boy’s face had been blurred from view.

Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, said: “For many, Google’s Street View cameras are an upsetting invasion of privacy. People are not consulted before it arrives in their town and yet Google relies on the public to point out where they’ve gone wrong.

“Google needs to take greater responsibility for people’s personal privacy and introduce stronger safeguards to prevent a repeat of this incident.”

Gordon Vincent, chief executive of the Wimbledon and Putney Commons Conservators, added: “It would have been nice if Google had asked us before putting these pictures up.

“In principle we wouldn’t have objected but they could have shown some care to stop an incident like this from happening.”

A spokeswoman for Google said: “We take issues around inappropriate content in our products very seriously, and we removed the image within an hour of being notified.

“For us, privacy and user choice remain paramount. This is why we have put in place tools so that if people see what they believe to be inappropriate, they can report them to us using the simple tools and the images will be quickly removed. We apologise for any inadvertent concern this may have caused.”