Who’s Really Watching Your Kids?
A background check didn’t provide any warning signs of her anger issues. Keep in mind that a background check is only relevant if there’s something that someone has been caught doing.
By Darcy Chavez, Communications —
This week in West Jordan, Utah, 21-year old McKenna Newell was sentenced to 30 days in jail and 3 years of probation after she was caught on camera abusing twin babies. Newell was hired to nanny for a private family through the website Care.com.
After interviewing for the position, the family felt comfortable hiring her, and she worked for them in 2018. On January 5, 2019, the family discovered on their in-home camera footage that Newell had kicked, shaken, and nearly suffocated their twin baby girls. She threw blankets over them while they screamed and cried. Newell also was seen kicking one of the girls while she lay on the floor helplessly.
Thankfully, this family had cameras in place to prove that Newell had been abusing their children, but what about the rest of us? Not everyone has cameras in their homes. Cameras and home security systems can be expensive and often not allowed for home renters. Care.com is widely considered one of the safest places to find and hire nannies and babysitters. For a premium cost, nannies can pay to have an official background check posted on their profile pages. In Newell’s case, a background check didn’t provide any warning signs of her anger issues. Keep in mind that a background check is only relevant if there’s something that someone has been caught doing.
EyeDetect® is a next-generation lie detector. It measures subtle changes in the eye to detect deception. Consider the potential results of allowing nannies to pay a premium to take an EyeDetect® test to screen them for undesirable behaviors in their past. Parents could review the test results and see how honest EyeDetect® found him or her to be about questions like, “Have you ever physically harmed another person on purpose?” Not only would parents be able to feel more confident that they could hire an honest and safe nanny; but honest and safe nannies would be able to take the available jobs.
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Photo by / Lina Kivaka
