The obligation of the cameras in nurseries is not a new debate. Every time news about child abuse is brought to the media (which fortunately is not frequent, but happens), we all shake our souls.
We leave our children with full confidence in a place where they stay for hours and thinking that they could do something bad terrifies us. And not only for that, but also to be able to control what our children do when we are not with them. Many nursery schools already have closed video surveillance systems, but Should cameras be mandatory in all daycare centers?
Watch everything that happens in the classroom
The video surveillance camera system currently works in many nurseries. They are installed in common spaces such as the classroom, the dining room, the hallways or the patio, but not in private places such as bathrooms. Parents have an exclusive password to access the system and can see from their computers, tablets or mobiles what is happening on those sites at all times.
I am in favor of the placement of cameras in nurserieseven in what should be mandatory For all the centers. I explain why.
We talk about babies of just months, without any ability to defend themselves or to get home and tell us how the day has gone in the nursery. How do we know if you have suffered any type of abuse?
Many times they are children who spend six or eight hours in a nursery school where we leave them and pick them up, not knowing what they do or how they are doing all day. Today, thanks to the mobile phone we can know at all times what our partner, our sister or our mother is doing throughout the day (if they want to answer us, of course), but we do not know what our babies do!
And the trust in the center?
There are those who believe that we cannot be controlling our children at all times, and that if we have chosen an ideal center to leave our babies, we should rely on the staff that will take care of it.
Although the center is trusted, when it comes to children I think that we are never quite calm, and being able to see what they do at all times helps to have a sense of tranquility.
There are those who defend that if you can be looking for 8 hours the images could also be taking care of your baby at home. It is not so. At 20 children per classroom, there are an average of 40 parents who will watch, when they can, at times, what happens in the classroom, thus forming a kind of chain of supervision.
Excess control or protection?
May. But today we have tools that were unthinkable years ago and we can take advantage of them when the end is good. And the right to privacy? We don't talk about teenagers, but about small babies, about children under 3 years old. Although I understand it, I think protecting our children from abuse is above defending their privacy.
Concern also arises about what parents can see in the images and the conflicts that can trigger. Have a child bite another child, hit or take away a toy. The parents would have information that they may not have now, and logically they would react. But again, I think that such issues are fully manageable side effects and that what matters, above all, is to protect our children.
Photos | A.M.Garrido on Flickr CC and iStockphoto
In Babies and more | Cameras in the nursery?
