Nanny Abuse and Prevention Techniques

Professionally minded married couples often opt for careers and end up using hired childcare as it becomes a more affordable direction to take. As more families hire nannies to take care of their children when both parents are at work, instances of nanny abuse have been on the rise, provoking concerned parents to take action by installing hidden cameras in their homes.

Hiring a nanny has its advantages, but also raises concerns of trust and safety for the parents, as they are leaving their babies and young children to a person that is basically a complete stranger. In ideal situations, the nannies are assimilated into the family structure and in many instances do become a member of the family, but on rare occasions nannies have been reported to be involved in theft, neglect, and in some extreme cases, abuse. Since nanny cams have become as commonplace as hiring nannies, prosecution of abusive nannies can be seen throughout the country.

Since nannies have become commonplace, so has the technology to covertly monitor the nanny’s daily routine in the household.

Early versions of what was soon dubbed the “Nanny Cam” had cameras hidden inside of teddy bears, which in many cases defeated the purpose of covertness by the shear fact there was a wire coming out of the rear of the toy to power the camera.

Newer devices such as Stealthcam are mini Digital Video Recorders (DVR) inside of items that can be commonly found inside a home, such as alarm clock radios, air fresheners, air ionizers and mantle clocks.  Devices such as the Stealthcam offers motion detected recording of video onto Secure Digital (SD) cards.                                                                          

“My nanny knows that we have cameras installed in our house, we don’t tell her where, we tell her that they are there,” said Julia, a Long Island mother of three. “For me it’s more of a deterrent rather than a measure where I have to deal with the problem after the fact,” she added.

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