Recent events only strengthen this concern—we rarely know the people caring for our children as well as we’d like to believe. While we want to trust them, trust alone isn’t enough. We assume their colleagues will hold them accountable, but too often, misconduct goes unnoticed or ignored until it’s too late.
If you’re searching for a daycare, I strongly recommend choosing one with surveillance cameras.
Okay, I’m going to get downvoted, but I have to ask it anyway. How do you just automatically trust all the other parents who have access to camera footage of your kid? How do you know the daycare has the cybersecurity to keep perverts from getting into the feed? Most daycares in the US can’t afford to pay their staff anything close to a living wage, so where do those additional funds come from to minimize your kid’s digital footprint?
@Bay
This is my concern. Not only family members and other parents getting access to these cameras, but folks who have no business having access to video feeds of small children getting diapers changed. I won’t even use a wifi camera in my own home.
@Bay
I’m a parent with a now 2-year-old in a daycare with cameras.
There is limited access to camera footage. Only the parents/legal guardians have access to the app. The livestream cannot be screenshot or recorded, the app prevents it. The change table view is blocked, so no genitals are visible on camera. You can only view the camera for the room your child/children are checked into, so there is no access to all cameras.
The daycare only saves footage if there was an incident; otherwise, all footage is wiped at the end of each day.
@Luca
This is how ours is. These are not high-def super expensive cameras. You can’t see any of the children’s faces because the camera is high up in the corner of the room - I only know which one is mine by what she is wearing and her body language. The changing area is completely out of view. You never see any of the children in any state of undress. You can just see the play area pretty much. There is only access to the live view, and the app doesn’t allow recording.
I do like checking in once or twice a day to see what she’s up to - sometimes they are reading books; other times, she is having a blast in the mini ball pit.
@Luca
You could record the feed with a second camera pointed at the screen. Don’t assume it’s wiped from everywhere and don’t assume it’s secure. Many networked cameras are vulnerable.
@Luca
Once it’s online, it’s online. You can delete it, but 1. many times what we mean by delete isn’t exactly what happens and 2. it can be recorded by a second device. Once something is online, you can never be sure it stopped being online.
@Bay
I don’t want anyone using my child’s image like that, and the notion that anyone would want to is obviously disgusting. But honestly, I would a million percent take that risk if I felt that there was some other tangible safety benefit to be had. The adults who are alone with my child have immensely more capability to harm them than some creep watching a webcam does.
@Bay
My daycare has live feed; the app doesn’t allow screenshots and you only get the feed when your kid is checked in for the day in the room they are in. You can only get the room code from the admin of the school, so that seems pretty safe to me tbh. 
@Bay
I’d be much less concerned about a potential pervert on the computer than the potential for actual physical abuse and neglect. My kid won’t know if someone creeps on their picture, but they will definitely notice being bruised, scratched, or neglected.
@Bay
This is super low on my list of concerns. The chance of someone hacking into the feed and doing something malicious with daycare footage is a very small risk (for me) compared to the benefits.
Our daycare has closed-circuit cameras in the building, but it’s not something that parents can access. It’s really not something that I would want. I don’t need to be monitoring my kid when he’s at daycare.
In general, I think it’s a good idea to be careful about spending a lot of time worrying about these kinds of stories. It isn’t good for children to have their parents in a state of constant vigilance and paranoia about rare things. If something actually seems wrong, don’t brush it off, but you don’t have to be on constant alert.
@Zan
Wow, I understand your concerns, but honestly if you are this worried, maybe daycare probably isn’t the best route for you. Also, what about when your child turns school age? You’re going to try to send them to a school with cameras?
@Zan
If you’re this worried about your daycare, don’t leave your kid in that daycare. You need to trust the people taking care of your child. If you don’t, find an alternative. A camera doesn’t prevent anything. There was a documentary about the doctor of the American female gymnastics team (if I’m not mistaken, I may be mixing stories and confusing who is who) that sexually abused the girls while the parents were in the room. His body was positioned so that the parents couldn’t see both hands, and while one hand was doing something normal, the other was abusing them.
Cameras may give you a false sense of security. They do nothing to prevent your child from being abused.
@Zan
Cool. Get a daycare that does what you want. But if you’re insisting that your insecurity means my kid should be on camera, stop.
@Zan
Exactly my point!
I posted yesterday asking for recommendations on daycares with cameras on my local Reddit sub, and I am getting so many negative comments about how these are security issues or why I didn’t think of this before having the kid, lol!
The daycare my kid goes to only shares 3 pictures at the end of the day, and most of the time they don’t even include my baby.
I think to each their own. I don’t tell you where to send your kids, so don’t lecture me on where I shouldn’t send my kid either.
@Zen
It’s crazy… don’t listen to them. We have many daycares around us with cameras. The problem is they are very in-demand; we were waitlisted. They are great daycares, and teachers really like that they have cameras. It’s easy to explain to parents what happened if there was a scratch, etc., but alas, we got what we got, still a good daycare but maybe someday we will be able to transfer to a daycare with cameras. 
Good luck 
I’m curious to see what everyone thinks. Cameras aren’t standard in daycares where I live, and I wouldn’t want them to be. I’m protective of my children’s image and digital footprint, and wouldn’t want the daycare nor a third-party company owning thousands of hours of footage of them.
Parents can and do come on the premises; we spend the entire day on site during the transition period. We build relationships with our kids’ educators. It’s true that you cannot know anyone with absolute certainty, but there are ways to reduce that uncertainty.
@Sage
I agree with you.
@Sage
I’m glad your comment is at the top for me because I share the same concerns. And it’s wild to me how many people in here are okay with their kids being surveilled and/or uploaded online.