The apple of the eye: Parents’ use of webcams in a danish day nursery

Abstract

Via webcams parents can now, from their place of work, see what happens in the day nursery of their child. The focus of this paper is why Danish parents of children, aged 0-6, use webcams, what they use them for and why some parents refuse using the webcams. The conclusions rest on a qualitative analysis of 3 of 11 interviewed parents. It is concluded that control is an important, but surely not the only motive behind parents’ use of this sort of CCTV. It’s also concluded that a substantial number of needs are connected to the use. Most prevailing are security needs, needs of social contact and of knowledge. The use of webcams has a clear relation to the parent’s handling of his parenting, his relationship to the day-care institution and his situation at work, his attitude towards the use of webcams and technical and practical matters. It is connected with tendencies of the radicalized modernity of today and with parents’ different ways and possibilities of handling these tendencies.