Turn Your Home Into Your Own Reality Show? That Comes With Risks
Turn Your Home Into Your Own Reality Show? That Comes With Risks
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Even if you don’t want to star in your own reality TV show, you might occasionally have moments in your home when you think, “Dang, I wish I’d videotaped that.” Moments like your little tyke doing his own interpretive dance to “Uptown Funk,” or your buddies going bananas during those closing moments of NCAA finals.
Alas, even by the time you’ve whipped out your trusty smartphone from your pocket, the moment is lost.
But guess what? There actually is a way to never miss capturing another epic moment unfolding in your own home, whether for later viewing and reminiscing or to upload to YouTube if that’s your thing. In fact, you might be doing it already!
The secret is to rig your home with hidden video cameras. Many homeowners have these perpetually recording devices up for security reasons (or, let’s face it, to keep an eye on nannies and housekeepers), but one oft-overlooked bonus is you can use them to create heartwarming, hilarious home videos of your family and friends.
All. The. Time.
This novel new use of home security cameras was recently outed by the New York Times‘ technology columnist Farhad Manjoo, who said he felt his kids, aged 4 and 6, were growing up too fast.
“Even though my wife and I take lots of photos and videos of them, I can’t shake the feeling that we’re losing most of the moments of their lives,” Manjoo opined. “So last summer, after some intense lobbying of my wife, I did something radical: I installed several cameras in my living room and dining room to record everything we did at home for posterity. In other words, I created a reality show in my house.”
Manjoo’s cameras are similar to a nanny cam or security cameras in that they’re motion-activated and record on a constant loop, connected to servers in the cloud that store every clip for a few days before deleting them. So, if something epic happens, Manjoo notes the time so he can easily find and save the footage later.
Since starting this experiment, Manjoo says, “I’ve already got amazing videos of weeknight dinners, of my wife and I watching the news on election night, of my son learning to play Super Mario Brothers, and my kids having a dance party to their favorite music.”
All in all, Manjoo says, these cameras have been “just wonderful at capturing the odd, beautiful, surprising, charming moments of life that we would never have been able to capture otherwise.”
At least, that’s the rosy, warm-and-fuzzy lens for this story. Remove that filter, and a whole slew of legal and ethical quandaries rear their ugly heads. Here are a few to ponder before you try this yourself.
Is it legal to film people in your home?
First things first: Is this legal? Generally it is, if your recordings are of the Charlie Chaplin–esque “silent film” variety.
“In just about every state, it is legal to have nanny cams, even hidden ones, that record video even without the consent of the person being recorded,” says Brian Pendergraft, a lawyer in Greenbelt, MD. However, “Recording audio without consent is illegal in many states.”
In other words, watch what your nanny’s doing all you want, just don’t listen in.
If you want to record audio with your visuals, in most states you’ll need the consent of all adults being filmed. That’s why Manjoo asked (or “lobbied”) his wife; meanwhile, since his kids are under the age of 18, their consent is not required (although this can come back to bite you, just keep reading).
This also means you’ll need the consent of any guests entering your home—an awkward question Manjoo avoids by just turning off the cameras when people visit. But even then, there are others his cameras might film illegally that should give him pause, such as deliverymen or people who aren’t even present in his home but who are being recorded on the answering machine of FaceTime, points out Thomas Simeone, an attorney in Washington, DC.
What are the security concerns?
Since home video footage is typically stored in the cloud, it’s also vulnerable to hackers. Manjoo protects himself by saying he won’t reveal the brand of camera he uses, but this measure is far from foolproof.
“If the recordings are stored in the cloud or are otherwise accessible to others and/or the internet, there is a risk of distribution of the videos to others,” Simeone says. Public cloud services are common targets of hackers, so if you do decide to store home videos (or any sensitive data), do what Manjoo does and automatically delete the footage after several days.
Another more surprising issue you might stumble across is copyright infringement. Reality TV shows blur products or logos to avoid having to pay to use the product in the shot. By that same token, if a trademark, brand, or work of art is visible in your footage, “licenses may also be required to avoid infringement claims,” says Paul I. Menes, an entertainment lawyer who has represented clients involved in reality show programming.
Of course, this probably won’t affect you if your films are purely for your personal use, but the instant it’s up on a sharable platform like YouTube, that could spell trouble.
“Depending on who and how many people watch the footage and where it’s watched, it could be considered a public performance, requiring licenses for the music,” Menes says, pointing to Manjoo’s Super Mario footage as a potential infringement.
What if the video is just plain embarrassing?
Last but not least, if your kiddos tend to streak from the bathtub to the bedroom in their birthday suits, watch out: Even if this video is utter cuteness to you, it may not look that way to others, and could violate child pornography laws.
“Obviously, a parent would not intend to distribute the recording or use it for prurient interests, but that may not matter,” says Simeone. “The mere creation of certain recordings may be illegal.”
And even if it isn’t child porn, it could be seen as an invasion of your child’s privacy—as was made clear in one 2016 case in which an unnamed 18-year-old Austrian sued her parents for posting baby pics of her naked, potty training, and more that she found too embarrassing to let slide.
“They knew no shame,” said the woman. “Every stage was photographed and then made public.”
All in all, if you decide to set up a video camera in your own home, you will want to carefully check local laws and weigh how everyone involved will feel about the footage, now and well in the future.
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