Home Security Systems Catch Criminals…and Also Kids’ Behaviors in the Home

September 25, 2018

LifeShield today released the results of a study that shows some parents are watching their kids activity not just on Facebook and Instagram, but also in their own homes.

While most use their systems to monitor the four threats, burglary, fire, carbon monoxide, and flooding. One in every Three parents has admitted to using their security system to check on their kid’s activities, another 44% say they may use their security system to check on their kid’s behavior in the future.

One in Five parents say they will not spy on their kids using their security system, but those very same parents admitted to doing so when their kid is home alone when strangers are loitering near their home and to see if they got home after school.

Other key highlights:

The surveyed parents also responded that they were likely or very likely to monitor proactive behaviors and passive threats to their children such as:

• If they opened doors for strangers (68%)
• Which friends they invited over when parents aren’t home (63%)
• If they snuck out of the house (61%)
• If they made it home before curfew (61%)

The activities parents most commonly reported they would never consider using their home security system to monitor included:

• Following household rules such as no food in the living room (38%)
• Completion of household chores (34%)
• Use of the car without approval (30%)
• Doing homework or respecting study time (26%)
• Interestingly, these activities also ranked high among parents who said that they would possibly use their home security system to monitor their children’s activities “depending on the circumstances.”

The most common situation-dependent monitoring activities reported were:

• Following household rules such as no food in the living room (29%)
• Completion of household chores (29%)
• Doing homework or respecting study time (29%)
• Monitoring sensitive areas such as liquor cabinet, medicine cabinet, gun storage or household petty cash (26%)
• Which friends they invited over when parents aren’t home (25%)
• Made it home before curfew (23%)
• The Fine Line Between Respecting Privacy and Safety Monitoring

Parents were also asked what best described their attitude on whether using their home security system to monitor the behavior of their kids was a violation of their children’s privacy. Parents cited the following reasons:

• 38% said it was their responsibility to ensure their children were safe and supervised, and saw their home security system as one way of doing that
• 27% said it depended on the child, their maturity level and the situation at hand
• 15% said that the kids know the system is there and that it may be used for that purpose
• 1% said that it was “never appropriate” to monitor their kids
• 19% said they did not feel any of those descriptions represented their attitudes on the matter
• Respondents had a strong orientation to using the system to protect their children from threats when they are home alone. Additionally, responses indicate that parents could further lean on home security systems under special situations or when there was a heightened concern about certain behaviors such as their kids sneaking out at night or into the liquor cabinet.

One respondent who uses their home security system to protect and monitor their children provided the following advice: “Children must be taught. This means they must also be supervised. Use the cameras to your advantage. You never know when an emergency may arise and could be avoided by monitoring.”

Publication Source: Hardware Geeks