Spyware for Babies

The New York Times has a long article (alt link) on surveillance systems aimed at babies. They are increasingly using AI.

Nanit and its rivals want to own 24/7 health tracking for the sub-four-foot set. And their already astonishing levels of baby data collection are just the beginning. Nanit recently raised $50 million from investors to expand its use of A.I. and use its camera to track speech and language development, motor skills and more, while extending its presence in children’s bedrooms into early adolescence.

Posted on August 26, 2026 at 8:05 AM3 Comments

Comments

- August 26, 2026 8:37 AM

This is sick beyond belief,

“while extending its presence in children’s bedrooms into early adolescence.”

In many parts of the world such “surveillance” would be regarded as chld prn and would be a “no defence possible” crime to create, store, send, or receive (even if you did not solicit it in any way).

Rontea August 26, 2026 9:13 AM

Fascinating and a little unsettling. The progression from a simple baby monitor to a full-scale analytics and health tracking platform feels like a case study in how technology creeps into daily life. The blend of reassurance and surveillance is palpable—parents gain peace of mind but trade it for a permanent data footprint of their kids’ earliest moments. The idea that our children could one day look back at their own sleep logs or cough recordings is equal parts sci-fi and inevitable. This is a perfect example of convenience, commercialization, and cultural obsession with quantified life intersecting—an Eye of Sauron that makes you smile while it watches.

Snarki, child of Loki August 26, 2026 9:43 AM

What, they’re not ‘chipping’ the kids, with ubiquitous chip-monitors?

Maybe that’s the NEXT step for monitizing parental anxiety/government overreach.

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