Kinderland bans staff from using personal devices at work after alleged abuse cases

SINGAPORE: Preschool chain Kinderland has banned staff from using personal devices at work, a move which it said will protect the privacy of children at their schools.

The move comes after videos of two teachers allegedly abusing children at its Woodlands Mart and Choa Chu Kang centres emerged recently.

Both were arrested this week, with one of them charged on Wednesday with ill-treating a child.

A former Kinderland teacher had told CNA that she recorded the widely circulated videos of the alleged abuse incidents at Woodlands Mart.

In response to CNA’s queries, Kinderland said on Thursday morning (Aug 31) that the ban on personal devices was not intended to stop “whistleblowing”. 

“By reinforcing the use of only company devices to take photos/videos of children, Kinderland hopes to reduce the tendency to use personal devices for official purposes,” said Kinderland.

“Thus, while at work, where work is work, if devices are needed, then it’s official devices that should be used and not personal ones.

“It was not the idea to restrict the use of personal phones to remove whistleblowing, but the concern over the privacy of the children that spurred the reinforcing of this policy.”

Kinderland announced the personal devices ban on Facebook on Wednesday evening, saying that it has company-issued devices to manage communication with parents.

This includes the sharing of photos and videos through a pre-school management app that updates parents on their child’s progress.

“To also prevent the misuse of photos and videos of our children, Kinderland will now make it a policy that staff not use their personal devices during teaching hours,” it said in the post.

“We hope these measures will better protect all.”

However, the move by Kinderland was criticised by some on Facebook, with one commenter describing it as a “super red flag”.

Some replied to the post saying that the preschool chain was trying to “protect” itself.

Another said: “You need (to set) up a proper whistleblowing program before putting up this policy.”