"Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither liberty nor security." Benjamin Franklin.

Does it justify a piece of news like this?

Yahoo! News wrote:Concern over CCTV in school toilets
From YAHOO! News

More than 200 schools are using CCTV cameras in toilets or changing rooms, figures have revealed.

A total of 825 cameras were located in the toilets or changing rooms of 207 schools across England, Scotland and Wales, showed figures provided by more than 2,000 schools.

Almost one in 10 of the schools which use CCTV said cameras were positioned in such places, while 54 have more than one camera for every 15 students.

Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, said: "This research raises serious questions about the privacy of schoolchildren across Britain, with some schools having one camera for every five pupils and hundreds of schools using cameras in toilets and changing rooms.

"The full extent of school surveillance is far higher than we had expected and will come as a shock to many parents. Schools need to come clean about why they are using these cameras and what is happening to the footage. Local authorities also need to be doing far more to reign in excessive surveillance in their areas and ensuring resources are not being diverted from more effective alternatives."

Big Brother Watch, which published the figures following a Freedom of Information Act request to more than 2,000 schools, also warned that the Home Office's proposals for a new regulatory structure was "not fit for purpose".

The new post of Surveillance Camera Commissioner "will have absolutely no powers to do anything", Mr Pickles added.

"Parents will be right to say that such a woefully weak system is not good enough."

Responses from 2,107 secondary schools and academies showed they used 47,806 cameras, including 26,887 inside school buildings. With 1.8 million pupils being taught in these schools, there was an average of one camera for every 38 children.

In all, 90% of schools had CCTV cameras, with an average of 24 cameras in each of the 1,537 secondary schools that responded and 30 cameras in each of the 570 academies. The estimated number of CCTV cameras in secondary schools and academies across England, Wales and Scotland was now 106,710, the campaigners said.

This has caused anger among parents and citizens who think this has crossed the line.
We know we've got CCTV cameras in banks, hospitals, supermarkets, malls, streets... They offer protection, and now there are even sophisticated tagging systems with face detection. Yet, these new systems have also brought about concern, and the fact that you even have them in changing rooms and toilets causes alarm.

Your thoughts?

Eww!! Security is becoming pervert. I have heard that those who have the idea of installing such cameras are typically vouyerist who like abusing their power. What I also think about this article is that it is sad they permit this at school. If they really accept this is because they think that, as educators, they are totally screwed and there is nothing else to do.

I know something similar happened in some changing rooms in the USA. What they can do instead of monitoring people is inserting microchips on the clothes which deactivate when they are paid, just like they do in Tesco.

Brainless security system.

The case itself is really worrying, but more than that it's also the fact that, despite control, there is no turning point in human behaviour. I don't agree with extreme solutions like this, but believe me, there are contexts where it seems to be necessary. The problem is not the cameras themselves, but what they do with the info they shoot. Is it for secutiry, actually? And how do they regulate security based on this info? That's the main concern!