Schools' use of CCTV “breaks data protection laws” claims new research

A research report by Salford University has claimed that many schools are breaking data protection laws by failing to inform pupils that they are being monitored by CCTV cameras or sound recording devices.

The research into the surveillance practices in 24 comprehensives in north-west England, by PhD student Emmeline Taylor, claimed that school children are monitored as intensively as prison inmates. The report says that most schools have at least 20 cameras installed, while a number have also installed microphones to record conversations

Under the Data Protection Act (DPA), schools are obliged to inform pupils where cameras amd microphones are installed and what the images and sounds they capture will be be used for. However, Taylor found that most schools were not aware of this requirement and did not make it clear to pupils where cameras were located.

The DPA also requires that the images and sounds acquired by surveillance systems "should be adequate, relevant and not excessive" but schools do not have to ask pupils for their consent to capture images or sounds of them. Schools must also notify the Information Commissioner's Office that they are using surveillance technology, but do not have have to specify what this involves.

The report, entitled I Spy With My Little Eye: Exploring the Use of Surveillance and CCTV in Schools, claimed that these lack of restrictions and the vagueness of the DPA's wording has enabled schools to become “testbeds” for the latest surveillance technologies. Taylor told the Guardian: "[The degree of surveillance] is habituating young people to accept a heightened level of scrutiny for increasingly mundane activities, such as borrowing a book from the school library".