An Eye on the Day Care

Call it cyber-bonding.

Workaholic parents can ease their guilty consciences digitally by using their office computers to check on their children in day care. Pictures taken by special cameras at the day-care center are transmitted over the Internet.

The system, called KinderCam, was created by Axis Communications Inc. of Georgia and ParentNet Inc. of Massachusetts. The system uses a special Internet camera plus software that allows parents to log in any time of day and check on Junior.

Axis officials say that the system is secure because parents need the correct user name and password to access the pictures.

“No matter how positive you feel about your day-care center, there is a lot of reassurance in knowing that you can peek in at any time,” said Les Yetton, president of Axis. The company’s press release points out that Yetton himself is “the father of two.”

Parents are charged a monthly subscription fee of $20, but the cost is a little steeper for day-care centers. Those with 180 children would require 12 cameras, according to the news release, and the cost would be about $15,000.

Axis said it will rebate part of its subscription revenue to the centers, however, to help pay for the costs.