The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Social and Family Affairs yesterday said it has reached a preliminary agreement with representatives of infant care centers that video footage from surveillance cameras in the centers should be directly uploaded to a government cloud system and kept for at least 30 days.
The ministry on April 26 announced its drafted amendment to Article 5 of the Regulations Governing the Installation and Use of CCTV Surveillance Equipment at Baby Care Centers (托嬰中心監視錄影設備設置及資訊管理利用辦法).
The article stipulates that designated personnel at infant care centers are responsible for inspecting the surveillance equipment regularly, repairing it immediately when it malfunctions, keeping and filing the encrypted surveillance video footages for at least 30 days, and keeping a record of content and deletion.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
However, sometimes when parents file a complaint about suspected child maltreatment or abuse at a childcare center, the government authority would receive responses from the center about not having the video footage due to human error or damaged equipment, the ministry said.
Therefore, the ministry proposed to amend the article, which would oblige the centers to ensure that their surveillance camera footage would directly upload to a designated cloud storage system established by the central government and be kept for at least 30 days.
Social and Family Affairs Administration Director Chien Hui-chuan (簡慧娟) said there had been several child abuse cases at childcare centers that did not have surveillance camera footage, so many people have urged the department to ensure it does not happen again.
The proposed amendment would provide a legislative basis to compel the infant centers to upload surveillance camera videos to cloud storage for safekeeping.
The publication of the drafted amendment opened a 60-day public comment period, and if the revision is passed, care centers would face penalties for avoiding, hindering or rejecting to upload surveillance camera footage, she said, adding that in serious cases centers could face suspension or have their operating permit revoked.
The cloud storage system has not been fully established, and as it is a large procurement project, there are some details that need to be clarified, Chien said.
The department has reached a consensus with representatives of infant care centers and parents that the centers should upload footage, Chien said, adding that that an inventory of centers’ surveillance equipment should also be made.
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