Nanny cams

[Judy Trickett]

Wow, this is an old thread!

Anyway, there have been news stories recently of parents slipping hidden cameras (the most recent one was in a PEN in a diaper bag) into items their child brings to the daycare like diaper bags, stuffed toys etc.

If I EVER found a camera like this I would immediately terminate the family and be keeping that damned camera. I don't allow ANY outside things like diaper bags, strollers, car seats etc to be brought back and forth each day. EVERYTHING a child has here is kept here and NOT passed back and forth. The only exception to this is outdoor wear and that all goes into a closet for exactly the reasons we are discussing here.

Here is my problem with it....first off, it breaches MY privacy. Second, it is illegal in Canada. The law states that it becomes illegal if you tape someone without their knowledge in a place that is percieved as "private". So, my home is private. A public washroom is private. A park is NOT private. KWIM?

I also have a problem with the fact that it tapes OTHER children. As a daycare parent I would be pretty irate and upset to find out some parent took it upon themselves to tape MY child in an attempt to catch the daycare provider. That breaches the privacy of ALL the dckids in my care.

I know I will catch some flack here but.....when you chose to place your child in daycare there ARE inherent risks that you accept. It is no different than when I allow my child to go to a Boy Scouts camp on the weekend - by doing that I accept the risks involved in that. I would HOPE he would be safe and secure and that no one would do him harm but the fact is that this is a world where stuff like that DOES happen. Does it happen often? No! There are far more good people than bad people. But it does happen.

When you drop off your child to the care of someone unknown to you then you accept the risks of that decision at the expense of your child. I think it is very unfair to off-load the responsibility of YOUR risks onto the daycare provider who, in all likelyhood is just trying to do her job.

Besides, if you have THAT much suspicion that something is wrong and your child is being treated unfairly that you feel the need to secretly tape a provider then WHY are you sending your child there at all???? It is all well and good to tape someone and PROVE that they are, in deed, harming your child but the damage is already done at that point. If you were really worried and that concerned for your child then you should just stop sending them to that care environment.