Home Security Tips When Leaving Children Home Alone

Ensuring the safety of your children when home alone is a crucial aspect for any parent or guardian.

If you ever need to leave your kids for short or long periods of time, home security systems offer the perfect solution to provide peace of mind. With a range of options including doorbell cameras and CCTV, you can enhance security while keeping an eye on the kids.

In the UK, the law doesn’t state a specific age at which a child can be left at home alone. However, parents and guardians could face legal action if they leave a child unsupervised if it places them at risk. Babies, toddlers and young children should never be left unattended, even for very short periods of time.

As a general guide, children under 12 years of age are usually too young to be left unsupervised. Ultimately, it is up to the parent or caregiver to decide if a child is mature enough to be left home alone.

Before leaving your child home alone for the first time, it’s a good idea to have an open discussion to make sure your child is ready. Establish rules they must follow, teach them basic first aid and how to make good decisions.

You’ll also need to provide a list of emergency contacts and phone numbers in case they need to call an adult in the event of an accident or emergency. You might even want to role play certain situations to help prepare them and give them more confidence when they are left at home on their own.

1. Install home security cameras: Home security systems offer parents and guardians enhanced peace of mind when leaving a child at home alone. Internal and outdoor security cameras allow the monitoring of inside and outside spaces. Video doorbells are ideal for seeing who’s calling without answering the door.
2. Secure the home: Always lock external doors and windows to keep your child safe from unwanted visitors. Ensure your child can quickly unlock the front or back door in an emergency. If windows need to be left open for ventilation, make sure they are locked into position and cannot be opened fully from outside.
   
3. Use security Lighting: Brightly lit outside spaces are great for deterring intruders. Use security lighting to illuminate outside spaces to protect your home and make your children feel safer. Motion detection lights save energy and only come on when they sense movement near your property. Low energy floodlights are a good option if you feel you need your property constantly lit throughout the hours of darkness.
4. Utilise smart home technology: Kids are notorious for forgetting to switch off devices, turn off lights, and lock doors, but with a smart home system, you can do all these tasks remotely. Smart home automation systems not only enhance security but can also be used to make it look like more people are at home. Turn lights on and off and off or close curtains or blinds from your phone to make it look like your child is not alone.

Home security systems provide many benefits and can become an invaluable tool when leaving responsible children home alone. Offering real-time monitoring, they allow parents and carers to check in remotely. They also deter intruders and enhance overall safety.

Video doorbells are quick and easy to install and offer the ultimate solution for monitoring people approaching your home. With video footage and 2-way talk, they allow you to view and speak to the visitor to save your child answering the door.

Motion detection automatically senses when a person is outside the home and sends an alert to your phone. You can even scare off intruders with the built-in sirens to raise an alarm.

Arlo wireless video doorbells offer excellent 2K HDR resolution, giving a clear view of people coming up to your door. They also boast a 180° head to toe viewing angle, night vision, video call alerts, and two-way real time talk. Compatible with Google, Alexa, IFTTT, and SmartThings, Arlo doorbells provide flexibility to seamlessly integrate with your lifestyle.

Security cameras with 24/7 recording capture every moment, or you can save data storage space and set them to only record when triggered by motion detection. If you need to leave your child alone at home, CCTV cameras provide peace of mind by allowing you to monitor them closely. With a choice of wireless, wired, Wi-Fi, and sim card CCTV cameras, connectivity is never an issue, no matter where you live.

Monitor internal and external movements to ensure your child is safe with high-resolution real-time video streaming. For extra protection at night, floodlight outdoor security cameras are perfect for deterring burglars and unsavoury individuals.

Another key benefit of home security cameras is the two-way talk feature. Speak to your kids anytime you like when you’re not at home. This can provide them with reassurance and make them feel more at ease knowing someone is watching over them.

You may be wondering if it is legal to use CCTV cameras to spy on your children. Parents of children under the age of 18 typically have a legal right to use CCTV to monitor their kids. However, use must be justified and balanced against respect for privacy. Provided you observe privacy, welfare, and data protection laws, installing security cameras inside your home is considered legal.

Spying on people over the age of 18 is illegal, so while it might be tempting to monitor your older teenage children, you could fall foul of the law. Everyone, regardless of age, has a legal right to privacy. Therefore, installing CCTV in private living spaces, such as bedrooms, could violate these rights. Especially without prior consent.

Home security cameras should never be placed in private spaces like bathrooms or in the bedrooms of people over 18. Excessive, covert, or invasive surveillance can be considered intrusive and damaging.

It is also worth noting that if you install surveillance systems inside the home, you should inform both family members and visitors. This includes friends, extended family, cleaners, child carers, and all other visitors to your home.

As well as this, you should also clearly display signage to notify people that CCTV is in use. This is because the collection and storage of personal video footage could infringe data protection regulations without prior consent.