Integrated video security - a must for modern preschools

Few environments demand a more careful approach to security than a kindergarten or preschool.

Early learning centres need to be welcoming places where children, families and staff feel comfortable, while at the same time maintaining tight control over who can enter, monitoring potentially vulnerable areas and being able to respond quickly if something goes wrong.

Video security has long played a role in achieving this balance, but the technology available today goes much further than simply recording footage for somebody to review after an incident.

An integrated video management system can bring cameras, access control, alarms and increasingly sophisticated AI-powered analytics together in the one package, giving early learning providers a much more proactive approach to safety and security. It can also play a crucial role in integrating other systems to save energy, overheads and make running an early learning centre more efficient.

Importantly, these capabilities can also be deployed with privacy firmly in mind, which is an essential consideration when working in an environment involving children.

Knowing who is – and isn't – on the premises

Access control is one obvious application for allowing the right people into a building, at the right time.

Kindergartens and preschools can have a steady flow of parents, carers, contractors and visitors arriving throughout the day. An integrated system can help staff manage entrances and restricted areas while providing an immediate visual picture when an access event occurs.

There may also be circumstances where a particular individual should not be permitted onto the premises. This could relate to a court order, custody arrangement, previous threatening behaviour or another identified safety risk.

Rather than relying solely on every staff member recognising that person, authorised security technologies can potentially provide another layer of protection. Depending on the system, applicable laws, policies and permissions, an identified person entering a monitored area could trigger an alert, allowing designated staff to follow the centre's established safety procedures. 

Again, integration is important here. An access-control event, alarm and corresponding video can be presented together rather than requiring staff to check multiple systems.

It is also important to note that a Facial Recognition system can ONLY identify individuals who have been uploaded to it for purposes such as these – it does not identify parents, carers and other individuals who have not been uploaded to the system.

Finding the important moments faster

Another significant development is the way AI is changing video search.

Traditionally, finding an incident might involve somebody manually scrolling through hours of footage. Modern video platforms can make that process considerably faster.

A cloud-based video surveillance platform using AI, for example, combines video management with analytics and cloud capabilities. AI-assisted search can allow authorised users to describe what they are looking for using natural language, helping them locate relevant footage very quickly without knowing the exact camera or time involved. 

Consider a staff member trying to establish where a child left a particular item, where someone went after entering a corridor, or what happened immediately before an incident in a playground. Being able to search recorded video intelligently can dramatically reduce the amount of footage that needs to be reviewed.

Advanced analytics can also use visual characteristics to identify similar appearances across footage. Rather than manually following someone from camera to camera, a system may be able to surface relevant sequences based on clothing or other visual attributes – for example, "follow the individual wearing a red hat", or "find all instances of children throwing a ball between 9.15 and 10.30am".

This is particularly useful in larger centres or campuses with numerous cameras and entrances.

Video that can understand what's happening

AI also creates opportunities to identify events, rather than simply recording them.

Analytics can help detect people entering specific areas, unusual movement, loitering or activity occurring at particular times. Rules can be established around areas that require additional supervision such a gate, car park, storage area or perimeter, for example – with alerts generated when pre-defined conditions are met, such as "alert me when movement is detected near the recycling bins".

The objective isn't to replace educators or human judgement. It is to give staff another set of eyes and make it easier to identify events that warrant attention.

The same infrastructure can have operational benefits as well. Centres might use appropriate, privacy-conscious analytics to understand how spaces are being used, identify congestion around entrances at drop-off and collection times, or investigate recurring safety issues. This can have a big impact on the efficient running of a busy facility, saving overheads and making things safer and more efficient in general.

Protecting privacy as well as people

Any discussion of video in early childhood environments must, however, start with privacy.

Access to footage should be tightly controlled and auditable, with appropriate retention policies and cybersecurity protections. Modern video platforms can also provide tools such as privacy masking or redaction, allowing faces or other sensitive areas of an image to be obscured where appropriate.

This becomes particularly valuable when footage needs to be shared. If video of an incident involves numerous children, for example, it is possible to redact individuals who are irrelevant to the investigation rather than unnecessarily exposing their identities. A smart platform can do this automatically once fed the correct information, making the prcess of privacy quick and easy.

The general principle for protecting children's privacy should be straightforward - collect and use only what is necessary, protect it appropriately, and ensure access is limited to authorised people for legitimate purposes. 

From passive cameras to an integrated safety system

Perhaps the biggest change with a facility's video system is that video is becoming less of a standalone security tool nowadays and more of an intelligent layer within the broader operation of a facility.

An open video management platform can integrate cameras with access control, intercoms, alarms and analytics, while allowing organisations to add new capabilities as their requirements change.

For kindergartens and preschools, that means video can potentially help answer some very practical questions: Who has entered the facility? Is somebody somewhere they shouldn't be? What happened during an incident? Can the relevant footage be found quickly? And can it be reviewed or shared without unnecessarily compromising the privacy of other children and families?

Technology alone cannot create a safe early learning environment. That will always depend primarily on people, processes and good judgement.

However, when video, access control, alarms, AI analytics and privacy protections work together, they can give educators and administrators better information and more time to act – helping them maintain the welcoming environment families expect while adding an important additional layer of protection around the people who matter most.