Forging an unlikely marriage between technology and parenting, a preschool in Tustin is installing video cameras in its classrooms and plans to broadcast the footage on the Internet so families can monitor their children.
Though day-care centers in New York and Georgia are experimenting with similar setups, this is believed to be the first cyber-surveillance installation in a Southern California preschool. Husband cams in the neighborhood bars? It sounds like a cute idea, but what a waste of technology. By capturing the classroom scene and displaying it on the World Wide Web, school owner Cathy Sipia said she hopes to create a digital looking-glass.
Parents get a Web address, a user name and a password to access the site. Once parents log on, they can click a button and flip from camera to camera, looking at still photographs that are updated every few seconds. Michael Sipia installs computer systems and Klein owns a small Web development firm.
This is supposed to make the parents feel better about leaving their children--not worse. Broadcasting systems on the World Wide Web, like the one Sipia wants to launch, emerged around , when users hooked portable digital cameras to their computers and displayed live pictures of their work and home environments.
Now, thousands of people use camera-and-computer setups, turning the Web into a voyeuristic realm for the bored. The viewing ranges from risque a live sex show from Amsterdam to ridiculous a percolating coffee pot in Cambridge, England. While the Tustin preschool staff builds the video network, the educator consults with--and gets approval from--the parents of her students.
