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Denmark: Internal surveillance in kindergarten

01 March 1999

A semi-private childminding facility in Copenhagen has installed surveillance cameras, linked to parents' workplaces via the Internet, so that the activities of the children and their teachers can be observed. The installations, it is claimed, will increase parental involvement in their childrens' lives. However, this one-way observation, which recalls Bentham's notion of the panopticon in Victorian British prisons, raises serious ethical and human rights questions over both childrensÆ and educationalistsÆ right to privacy. It also begs the question of the effect of constant surveillance on children and on their interaction with one another and their teachers. There has been no discussion of how problems arising from the surveillance will be dealt with, discussed or resolved. The experiment has been welcomed enthusiastically by officials and parents and the model will be followed by other institutions. There have been few critical comments, although one observer remarked that the slogan "Big Brother is watching you" should be modified to "Big Mamma is watching you, kid".