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In-Home Surveillance For 20K Brit Families

England's Children's Secretary intends to put 20,000 "problem families" under 24-hour in-home surveillance using super-vision CCTV.

They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.

Ministers hope the move will reduce the number of youngsters who get drawn into crime because of their chaotic family lives, as portrayed in Channel 4 comedy drama Shameless.

I seem to recall the topic of 24-7 in-home surveillance used in Pournelle and Niven's 1981 novel Oath of Fealty. In the massive Todos Santos arcology, every resident had the option of complementary in-home surveillance by security guards. And they loved it! You never know when some little problem might come up in the pantry while you're in the living room.

Update: For fans of George Orwell's 1984, there's an interesting sidenote on the use of telescreens in the houses of the "proles" or common people.

The great majority of proles did not even have telescreens in their homes. Even the civil police interfered with them very little. There was a vast amount of criminality in London... but since it all happened among the proles themselves, it was of no importance. In all questions of morals they were allowed to follow their ancestral code... They were beneath suspicion. As the Party slogan put it: "Proles and animals are free."

End Update.

Via Daily Express.

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