Big Brother or peeping tom? UK installs CCTV in school bathrooms, changing rooms
September 12, 2012

Over 200 UK state schools have installed cameras in bathrooms and changing rooms to monitor students, a recent surveillance survey reported. British parents will likely be shocked by the study’s findings.

The survey is based on a freedom of information request conducted by Big Brother Watch, an anti-surveillance activist group. The group said they were shaken by the results, which was much higher and more extensive than expected.

The report "will come as a shock to many parents", Nick Pickles, Director of Big Brother Watch said. "Schools need to come clean about why they are using these cameras and what is happening to the footage”.

- 47,806 cameras used in 2,107 schools
- 207 schools have 825 cameras in changing rooms and bathrooms
- 90% of schools use CCTV cameras
- 54 UK schools have 1 camera or more per 15 pupils
- 106,710 CCTV cameras estimated in high schools and academies in England, Scotland and Wales

A total of 825 cameras were installed in the bathrooms and changing rooms of 207 different schools across England, Scotland and Wales, according to data provided by more than 2,000 schools.

It remains unclear where in the bathrooms and changing rooms the cameras are located, who watches the footage and whether any pupils were recorded while changing.

The principal of the Wildern School in southern England, however, said that the cameras in her school – one per bathroom – are located "nowhere near the toilet cubicles."

"The images are not looked at unless there has been a reported problem and all images are deleted after a maximum of 30 days," she said.

Video recording in toilets or changing rooms is legal, but recommended only for exceptional circumstances, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) reported. The ICO is an independent authority in the UK, whose duties include promoting privacy.

Research also showed that the extent of CCTV use varied widely from school to school. “With some schools seeing a ratio of one camera for every five pupils,” the report said. “CCTV appears to be used as a quick fix to much more complex problems and issues that simply cannot be solved with passive surveillance.”

UK schools so unsafe that surveillance needed in the most private spaces?

Since the 1990s, the UK’s Home Office has spent 78 percent of its crime prevention budget on CCTV installations, and schools have likewise invested significant resources in their own surveillance equipment, the Big Brother Watch report said.

No significant research has been done into whether CCTV cameras actually lower crime rates.

Big Brother Watch was able to locate a single study by the French Institut D’ Aménagement Et D’Urbanisme, which concluded that theft and burglary continued to increase after the 2007 installation of CCTV in the Île-de-France region. A marginal reduction in disorderly incidents in schools was also reported.

‘Shocking’ highlights

The Big Brother Watch report estimated that more than 100,000 cameras monitor students and teachers across Britain, with 90 percent of the schools surveyed acknowledging the use of some form of video surveillance.

Responses from 2,107 secondary schools showed that they used 47,806 cameras in total with more than half installed inside the schools. The Radclyffe School in Oldham surpassed all other schools in the survey, with 20 cameras total in bathrooms and changing rooms.

Sharon Holder, the GMB's national officer, told Newsvine that her trade union was disgusted with the findings.

"Placing CCTV in school bathrooms poses a worrying development in school policy and raises a number of questions,” she said. “How many parents have given headteachers permission to film their child going to the toilet or having a shower? What happens to the film afterwards? How much discussion has there been on governing bodies and to what extent have councils and councilors had any input into these developments? What problems are the schools trying to solve?”

I'm about to apply for a place for my son at secondary school next year, so this is one of the things I'll be asking questions about.

If they can't keep order in schools without the need for bloody cameras in these areas, they're not up to the job, and the prospect of perverts potentially viewing the kids getting changed etc. is worrying to say the least.

Its a case of the few spoiling it for the many...or is it the other way round?

What are they supposed to do to combat all this misbehaviour?

I admit, putting cameras in toilets and private places is a bit OTT
It depends on where the trouble is happening.

silvershine wrote:
What misbehaviour, specifically are you referring to, Silvershine? Because so far as I'm aware, nobody's actually stated what they're supposedly trying to combat, or whether these cameras have assisted in doing so.

Why else would they have cameras? I thought they were associated with crime?

silvershine wrote:
And paedophilia.

They won't allow parents to photograph kids at school events for fear of paedophilia, but put cameras in the changing rooms!?!

They have been doing it without the knowledge of parents in most cases. Surely if their installation was successfully improving some kind of problem, they'd have been pleased to report the results of their efforts? Why was it done surreptitiously? Unthinkingly following orders, I expect.

Some people spoiling it for others, you say? Well some people do nasty things in their living rooms. I'll tell you what, nobody'd better offer me that as a reason for sticking a camera in my living room.

Paedophilia, yes,that is a worry, in fact, it's every parents fucking nightmare.

they say to respect your elders, but how can they when we don't trust them to take a piss unsupervised?

The whole world will be on video soon.

Its all for our own good of course.

Principal/headmasters office...

Any funds lavished on that unnecessary and intrusive technology should, imo, be spent of stuff that teaches kids things they need to know, instead of on spying on them.

Any way, I trust such cameras are regularly covered over by the more astute pupils.

A little off subject (sorry) but one of the secondary schools I'm considering for m'boy is an academy. Hence, it has no affiliations with a particular church (and therefore doesn't use whether or not the children have been baptised in their selection criteria). Which is a good thing to my mind - no religious indoctrination.

When looking into the difference between an academy and other types of school, the only thing I can find, is that academies get their funding directly from the government, as opposed to it coming via county council. I can't determine what difference that would make. Can anyone enlighten me?

I'm shocked!

I'll also be phoning my daughters school on Monday morning to ask whether this is the case in her school. The answer had better be a resounding no!

Cheers for the thread gilly.

psketti wrote:
I wouldn't be asking, I'd want to see for myself!

Good point.

I know they already have a certain amount of CCTV's... now I want to know where.

Gilly wrote:
I think you need to dig a little deeper in the concept behind Academy schools - look at the influence of corporations and private funding and their positions with in the boards, management and required syllabus etc. Tony Blair was behind this course of action that should ring a few alarm bells on its own! The academies seem to be geared up to be worker farms, tailoring education to turn out meat capable of meeting corporate demands.

Oh for crying out loud... someone go get a paint gun (you guys are allowed those correct?) and go shoot at those damned cameras.

That's...it's just unacceptable to having cameras in bathrooms and changing rooms...period. They sure as hell ain't doing it to "prevent" bad behavior by students or to prevent couches and teachers from molesting kids.

Gilly wrote:
G'day Gilly.

HOW THE FUCK is it legal to put CCTV's in toilets and change rooms ?

That is grossly wrong on so many levels that it should not be accepted by anyone.

Home schooling sounds better and better eh.

oioioi wrote:
Good point. I'm actually visiting the place in a couple of weeks. Will also be taking my own camera with me.

Frog wrote:
I asked about the syllabus, and was advised it's no different from other schools'.

Do you think academies are geared up in the way you describe, to a greater extent than other types of school?

I made one of my son's teachers cry at a parent's evening once. Not intentionally. I just pointed out that these days, it's all about getting them through exams, instead of providing a broad base of knowledge. She was actually upset because (as well as mistakenly thinking I was blaming her - and I wasn't being aggressive, honest) she agreed with me, and so, she said, did many of her colleagues.

I don't really know what to make of it. Aren't councils just government underlings?

Re the cameras - I'm having none of that!

Gilly wrote:
Personally, I believe it starts right at the beginning in pre-school. The whole process is very well designed from TPTB's perspective.

Anyone with a slight interest in any of this at all should read 'DUMBING US DOWN' by John Taylor Gatto.

Gilly wrote:
My understanding is that Academy schools are free to alter the curriculum and many other aspects such as school hours and holiday periods, which under the normal system were uniform. Its been a while since I looked at the subject and my memory is bad so it's best if you satisfy yourself as to the actual facts and potential implications.

My personal view is that they are geared up to circumvent some of the resistance to change within the current system. They are ripe for allowing independent change at the whim of the schools management. Due to the funding model there is potential for corporations/donors to influence the decision making process and I think that is an intrinsic part of the new model. It may all look OK at the point of transition, but these things always morph into something other than what was originally proposed. The available information is very vague and for the most part you need to read between the lines. Finding good information on this subject is very difficult and requires some effort to find discussions where people are debating their concerns. The academy isn't popular among the general teaching staff for the most part.

Would you trust Tony Blair to do the right thing for your children and future generations? The war criminal, MMR evangelist and proven outright liar!

There are teachers who are frustrated by the current state of affairs but the management process prevents them from influencing anything of importance within the system. Dissenters aren't tolerated teachers are required to be as conformist as their students. Take a look at the involvement of Common Purpose within education.

At least councils are more directly accountable to their constituents for what that's worth. Who are academies going to be accountable to and who will really be pulling their strings?

The camera situation totally intolerable and a prime example of the states obsession with civil surveillance.

Yes, you're right about there being little, vague info - I've looked. Your observations have given me food for thought.

I'll do some thorough interrogating, and swat up on body language / facial expression interpretation (as per Cal Lightman in Lie to Me) prior to my visit. Will also request a list of governors & check them out.

Thank you, Frog.