Are We Preparing Our Children to Be Surveilled?

From the moment they're born, kids have cameras pointed at them.

It starts in what it supposed to be a child's safest place, the bedroom: a baby monitor hovering over their bed. When kids are awake, parents jam their phones in the child's face to capture every moment.

When kids start preschool, teachers take photos and video to document the day, conveniently arriving as an attachment in the parents' email inbox.

As parents, all of this is under the auspice of caring. But how much damage are we doing? I worry about the long term effect of what has only become ubiquitous in the last decade.

What does the world look like when a surveillance camera is not a symbol of distrust, but comfort?

Written on Mar 14th, 2022