Thursday, April 30, 2009

Surveillance is an 'inescapable' part of life in modern Britain

Today when I visit the UK I see cameras almost everywhere. In restaurants, traffic lights, street corners, offices, hospitals, stations and even in public rest rooms. The government also has satellites orbiting the world capturing, among other things, information about us.


Then there are the commercials on TV, in which they say that no matter where you go the police will find you and give you a ticket for not wearing a seat belt.

Do you feel as if you are watched? Chances are your 100% correct. It is the pretence that you are unobserved that is an act of self-delusion in modern Britain.

In the UK people can expect a camera to record them up to 300 times a day.

UK privacy campaigners claim that Britain has the most cameras per head of any population in the world. In 2004 the European Commission found 40,000 cameras monitored public areas in 500 British towns and cities, compared to fewer than 100 cameras in 15 German cities and no open street CCTV in Denmark.

Click here to check out photos of surveillance cameras in London.

Primary schools are using surveillance cameras to track down and punish children behind childish classroom pranks.

Lynch Hill Primary in Slough, Berkshire disclosed how it used the sophisticated equipment to identify an eight-year-old girl who hid her friend's shoes during a lesson.

The school has cameras in 12 classrooms, three corridors, the school reception area, the music room and the canteen.

As a parent, I fully understand concern over protecting our children from danger. But is this really how we want the cameras used?

What do you think?

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