The panopticon effect: the use of surveillance and monitoring by foster carers and social work practitioners to minimise unmediated contact

The use of digital devices and the Internet by care-experienced children and young people has been associated with problems that have included placement disruption and the risk of re-experiencing parental abuse. This article provides details of an exploratory study that was concerned with how young people in care made use of digital devices and the Internet to stay in touch with family members. Using a triadic method of semi-structured interviews to hear from 12 young people, their foster carers and social workers, the findings point to the use of a variety of monitoring and surveillance methods that embrace the ‘techniques’ of examination, interrogation and visibility by adults, as well as ‘resistance’ by the young people. The article closes by drawing the conclusion that foster carers and social workers are, in effect, sleepwalking into surveillance, where the aim is social control.