Caught On Tape: You're Being Watched

Feb. 4, 2005 — -- "Big Brother is watching you." George Orwell made that catchphrase famous in his book "1984." Today, some say his vision has come true.

Cameras are certainly in a lot of places these days. They're on the beat with cops. They're in supermarkets, office buildings and on some city streets. Some parents are installing cameras to keep an eye on their kids.

One father hid a camera behind a wall hanging in the family home, and caught his children and their friends drinking beer and playing strip spin the bottle.

By the way, parenting experts generally recommend that parents NOT spy on their kids.

"All spying does is tell a kid that the reason for doing the right thing is because you're being watched -- that doesn't instill any values," said Neil Bernstein, a clinical psychologist and author of "How to Keep Your Teenagers Out of Trouble: And What to Do If You Can't."

Increasingly, cameras are providing the proof authorities need to intervene. Some parents have planted cameras to watch their nannies while they're at work. In some cases, the tapes revealed abuse, and police have arrested nannies caught on tape abusing babies.

Surveillance video sometimes catches people who file bogus workers' compensation claims. They said they were too injured to work, but were healthy enough to be caught on tape running around outdoors. We have one tape of a corrupt chiropractor, caught coaching a patient to lie to collect insurance money.

And "20/20" caught an auto body shop making extra work for itself by taking a hammer to a customer's car.

This sort of targeted surveillance is clearly helpful, but what about government cameras that keep all of us under surveillance?

I recently drove around Wilmington, Del., enjoying the privacy of my car. But was it really private?

Since 2001, in Wilmington, a company called Downtown Visions has blanketed 70 square blocks of downtown with video cameras. They were watching me from a control room as I drove around town.