Seven cameras at the Bright Futures Day Nursery in Clitheroe, Lancashire, will stream real-time moving pictures from playrooms and the garden.The video streams will be encrypted, protected by ‘multi-layered security measures’ and can only be accessed by parents with the correct passwords.
But critics say the monitoring is another step towards the surveillance society and warn the live streams are only as safe as the parents who have access to them.Daniel Hamilton, of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, said it was ‘sad’ the nursery had installed the equipment.
‘With each person in the UK being caught on CCTV an average of 300 times a day, it now appears that even young children can’t escape the surveillance state,’ he said.‘Of course parents want their children to be safe, but monitoring their every movement goes a step too far.’
The cameras, which go live on July 1 as part of a £40,000 refurbishment, will deliver colour images but no sound, streamed live to the NurseryCam website.The nursery says it will help parents feel more secure and allow them to ‘participate’ more in their children’s activities.Parents will even be able to log in using their smartphones.
‘Parents can check in on their children, and because there’s been nurseries in the news over safety concerns, it protects our staff with accusations,’ said nursery owner and manager Jasmine Cross.
