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Big Brother in your school

Day 2: Finding out about CCTV

Apart from watching the odd episode of Crime Watch UK, we didn't know much about CCTV, so we definitely needed to do some research. We wanted to find out:


  • Who invented it?
  • When it was first introduced?
  • How it works
  • Where it is used and why?
  • Is CCTV an invasion of privacy?

To make the task easier, we decided to each research a different area:


  • Amanda focused on the history of CCTV and how it works
  • Guy looked at where it is used and why
  • Dom explored the arguments for and against its use


Diary gallery thumbnail
Doing our research

We used a number of different research sources including the Internet, newspaper articles and television programmes. It wasn't easy - there's loads of info out there about CCTV suppliers and where you can buy CCTV, but not much else.


We laid our research out on the table at our next meeting. We felt a lot of what we'd found out was a bit dull and boring. We were worried that CCTV wasn't such a Big Idea. Should we give up on CCTV and start again???


Every one was all set to go back to the drawing board when we started to look at a news article called "School puts spy cameras in toilets" (external link) about a school in Brighton that's put CCTV cameras in the school loos to stop smoking and graffiti. The story grabbed us, and we decide to stay with CCTV but tighten our focus to concentrate on CCTV in schools.


We decided to spend a few hours researching CCTV in schools to find more interesting news articles and explore a CBBC Newsround feature (external link) looking at CCTV and what young people think about it.


Useful links
Research (external link)


Next
Working in a team is not always easy