What To Do When a Parent Secretly Video Tapes You

"Today I discovered that a parent recorded my day with a digital camcorder that she placed in her child's diaper bag," wrote a family child care provider from Virginia. "She did not tell me about this, so she did not have my permission to do so. What are my rights?"

Privacy is an important concern for both parents who use family child care as well as the child care provider.

Obviously you want to develop a mutually trusting relationship with every parent in your program. A parent who decides to secretly video tape you has obviously lost her trust in you and has gone over the line in violating your privacy. She has also violated the privacy of the other families in the program.

It's a good idea to discuss the issue of privacy with parents before you enroll a child in your program. I've written about how to establish a privacy policy to help protect the parent's privacy in my article, "3 Easy Ways to Meet a Parent's Privacy Expectations."

But what about your privacy?

When talking with parents about privacy it's important to ask parents to help you protect the privacy of your family and the other families in your program. This can be done through including language in your privacy policy such as:

"I respect the privacy of all the families enrolled in my program. I expect that parents will refrain from sharing any personal information about me and my family without my permission. I also expect that parents will not share any information about the other families enrolled in my program without the permission of the other families. If you have questions about what this means, please talk to me about it."

Of course it's normal for families to share information about themselves with each other. However, you want everyone to understand that sharing with third parties is not acceptable.

Legal Question

A parent who video tapes you without your permission is likely violating the law. Each state has its own laws about privacy. Talk to your child care licensor or your state attorney general's office for more information. It's unlikely that you are going to want to sue a parent in this situation, but you could certainly ask the parent to give you the tape or watch her destroy it in your presence. You should not tolerate any secret videotaping and you should tell parents that doing so will be grounds for you immediately terminating them from your program.

Tom Copeland - www.tomcopelandblog.com

A modified version of this article was first produced by Think Small.

For additional family child care business publications, contact Think Small's publishing division, Redleaf Press, at 800-423-8309 or visit www.redleafpress.org.

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