Whether to spy or not to spy … that is the question?

It’s been about ten years since I last read George Orwell’s 1984, where the infamous Big Brother snuffed out the notion of privacy by keeping the novel’s populace under constant surveillance.

The theory was if a population knew it was always under scrutiny, then they would never act out of order.

No criminal behaviour.

No aggressive acts.

Just passive, law-abiding citizens.

Very easy to control.

This idea was adopted by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham when he created the Panopticon, a prison that allowed an observer (guard) to watch the prisoners but the "inmate must never know whether he is being looked at at any one moment; but he must be sure that he may always be so." (Foucault)

Now it seems the Victorian school system have decided constant surveillance is the best way to curb bad behaviour in the school ground.

Victorian Principals Association president Fred Ackerman says the primary reason for the security cameras is to monitor vandalism and theft, but he acknowledges the cameras could be used to monitor school children for anti-social behaviour.

Of course civil liberty groups have thrown their hands up in the air claiming children’s rights to privacy are being stripped away.

It’s not unusual to walk through the public spaces of the world and see closed-circuit cameras recording all of our movements, but do we really need to expose the children of the world to 24 hour surveillance, especially in a place where they’re already supposed to be safe from harm?

Surveillance would probably lower the incidents of bad behaviour in schools, but wouldn’t it be due to the children’s sheer fear of being caught.

A child should never learn through fear, but through example.

A lesson of what is right and what is wrong.

When I went to school the playground, which by the way was no bigger than a small field, was patrolled by teachers I knew and learnt from.

Not by a sentinel camera.

Children learn through action, they learn through example, and I think if we continue down this road, they’ll learn nothing but obedience to a faceless camera.

Kids can get out of hand and the anti-social problems that exist within their age bracket need to be addressed, but I was always taught lessons were learnt through mistakes.

I find it hard to see mistakes being made when they’re so worried about making them.

By Quinn Jones.