By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff reporter
Observation cameras installed in daycare centers certified by the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) are causing a stir with some civic groups who complain they were set up without prior endorsement from parents.
Hundreds of day care centers in the capital have installed the equipment to broadcast scenes on the Internet, allowing parents to check up on their children and how they are being taught.
However, some parents and civic groups oppose it saying it "infringes upon human rights."
About 500 of 2,300 nurseries under the SMG had set up the cameras as of June to ease parents' anxiety by broadcasting what was happening in daycare centers.
Parents pay 5,000 won per month to access real-time footage from the nursery their child attends.
However, the progressive civic groups are calling for the cameras to be removed, claiming they violate privacy.
Jinbo Net and the Seoul branch of the New Progressive Party held a press conference Wednesday, calling for the removal of all monitoring equipment at day care facilities in Seoul.
They previously held press conferences asking for the city government to cancel the program, but the city installed cameras at 200 more day care centers in May.
"A parent was shocked when she found out that her daughter and instructor's dialogue was revealed through the center's website without her consent," a representative of Jinbo Net said. "It is clearly unlawful as the city went ahead with the installation without obtaining approval from parents. The day care centers had approval from the teachers, but they had to agree as they are employed by the nurseries."
The civic groups claimed that Seoul forced daycare facilities to install the cameras
"Some districts even designated the observation systems as criteria for nursery grading, which makes the installment almost mandatory," the Jinbo Net representative said.
They also claimed that the way SK Broadband was chosen as the sole company operating the system was suspicious.
"We will request an audit and file a civil suit this month," he said.
The civic groups say that Internet observation cannot be a means to assure the safety of childcare services.
"They should build more public nurseries, instead of certifying private ones as 'Seoul-style' and have more teachers to reduce the teacher-child ratio," the representative stressed.
They also said Seoul City should increase the number of civil servants to reinforce supervision at day care centers. "If they want to improve nurseries, they have to assist them financially and carefully oversee the running of the facilities in a transparent manner."
For its part, Seoul City explained that only two hours of video during snack time are relayed and this does not violate human rights.
"As to company selection, SK Broadband offered to install the cameras and so we gave the business to them," a city official said.