Spyware hidden in kids’ toys

WARRING parents are using drones and stashing spyware in children’s toys to covertly collect evidence for custody cases, the Office of the eSafety Commissioner has warned.

But Queensland MP George Christensen thinks hitech spying is useful in proving child abuse.

Children are being used as unwitting spies when parents give them gifts fitted with secret recorders.

“Some children are pressured to record a parent or grandparents and to pass the information to the other party,’’ eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has told a parliamentary inquiry into family law.

The eSafety Commissioner says spyware had been put into keyrings and bags given to children “and then used for surveillance purposes. This is clearly abusive’’.

But Mr Christensen, who also sits on the House of Representatives Social Policy and Legal Affairs Committee, said some parents could use spyware to detect and prove child abuse.

“What’s the greater wrong — abusing a child or abusing someone’s privacy to find out the abuse is going on and taking it to authorities?’’ he said.