Representatives of childcare workers yesterday called on lawmakers to abandon planned rules that would require surveillance footage of their facilities to be uploaded to the cloud, citing privacy and dignity concerns.
Article 30 of the draft childcare services bill says that to ensure the safety of children and to preserve evidence, childcare facilities must install surveillance systems, ensure that the system would not be tampered with or damaged, and keep data on-site for at least 30 days in encrypted form, with copies of the footage uploaded to a cloud server established and maintained by the local government.
The bill says that the data must be uploaded to a government server to preserve evidence that would help establish facts in childcare abuse cases, as well as clarifying matters for parents and childcare service operators.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Industry representatives protested against the planned rules outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.
Chinese United General Association of Maternity, Infant, and Childcare and Education director-general Chiang Shu-jung (蔣叔融) told the rally that uploading footage of children to the cloud in an age of rampant cyberattacks was a deeply concerning plan.
It is outrageous that a small group of people have unilaterally made the decision to require that the footage be uploaded, Chiang said, adding that the privacy of the children would be compromised.
Legislation that deals with surveillance footage must guarantee the privacy of children, help establish a professional, respectful and friendly childcare industry, improve the internal management and professionalism of childcare facilities, and establish a bilateral agreement and a code of conduct regarding such footage, Chiang said.
A mother of five, surnamed Chen (陳), said that the proposed policy would discourage parents from sending their children to care facilities due to concerns that their children’s privacy would be breached.
Representatives of New Taipei City facilities said that the municipal government employs a significant number of male childcare staff and parents of girls often ask that male staff be excluded from diaper-changing duties for their children.
Parents are already distrustful of personnel, so they would not be comfortable with footage going online, the representatives said, adding that even Taiwanese jails do not mandate the preservation of footage for 30 days.
The bill was proposed following the death of a one-and-a-half-year-old child known as Kai Kai (剴剴) on Dec. 24, 2023, allegedly due to long-term abuse at the hands of carers.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
HORROR STORIES: One victim recounted not realizing they had been stabbed and seeing people bleeding, while another recalled breaking down in tears after fleeing A man on Friday died after he tried to fight the knife-wielding suspect who went on a stabbing spree near two of Taipei’s busiest metro stations, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. The 57-year-old man, identified by his family name, Yu (余), encountered the suspect at Exit M7 of Taipei Main Station and immediately tried to stop him, but was fatally wounded and later died, Chiang said, calling the incident “heartbreaking.” Yu’s family would receive at least NT$5 million (US$158,584) in compensation through the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp’s (TRTC) insurance coverage, he said after convening an emergency security response meeting yesterday morning. National
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
RSS