Sunnybank Preparatory School classroom webcasting surveillance - where are the safeguards ?
The Daily Telegraph reports that the privatefee paying school Sunnybank Preparatory School, Burnley, Lancashire, is webcasting classroom surveillance videos onto the Internet
"Pupils at Sunnybank Preparatory School, Burnley, are filmed in their classrooms from the moment they start school to the moment they leave.
Parents can monitor their children in class via a webcam
Their parents can monitor their progress at any time of the day by logging on to a secure internet site. The system shows the school in real time, but recordings of specific events, good or bad, can be retrieved and saved on CDs."
We look forward to reading the entry for
Sunnybank Preparatory School
171-173 Manchester Rd,
Burnley,
Lancashire
BB114HR
on the register of Data Controllers regulated under the Data Protection Act.
c.f. the Search Form for the Register of Data Controllers.
Currently this electronic surveillance system does not seem to be registered, when obviously it should be, given that it involves personal digital data about children.
Presumanbly the teachers and other staff working at the school have the appropriate Criminal Records Bureau checks and Department of Education List 99 blacklist checks,.
However, as we have asserted in the past with ChildLocate and other systems which track vulnerable children, these checks also need to be applied to all the IT staff at the system suppliers and the Internet Service Provider who may have root or systems administrator access to the allegedly "secure website" from which these pictures of young children are being webcast.
What provision to opt out of this surveillance system is there for parents who object to their children being under remote surveillance by other parents or other relatives, some of them outside of the UK ?
Is there an audit trail of who views what and when ?