Rebecca Treharne, owner of Mes Enfants pre-school in Swansea, said her nursery was the first in Wales to introduce biometric data scanning at the start of the year in the wake of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. "Security has been heightened in parents' minds," she said. "It's always number one, even ahead of the child's happiness."
The system works by scanning fingerprints of visitors to the nursery, such as staff, parents and carers. Anyone wanting to enter must be scanned and will be denied access if their prints are not recognised. Children's fingerprints are not taken.
But the emergence of fingerprint scanners and cameras for parents to check up on children has prompted critics to describe such heightened security measures as a step too far and akin to Big Brother.
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