英国新闻听力 父母们付钱请私人侦探监视保姆

Parents Pay Private Detectives to Watch the Nannies

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REPORTER: Still to come on Culture Shock we look at the new trend for DIY SIM card adjustments on the streets of Ghana but now we go to America.

For many people, paying for a nanny to watch their children can be an expensive business. But now in New York, parents are going one step further and are paying private detectives to watch the nannies who watch their children. For around eighty five US dollars an hour, a private investigator¹ will spy on your nanny either in person or the specially² fitted nanny cam. They'll check where your nanny and child are, who they're with and even how long your child is left crying. Does it sound overprotective? Well it certainly seems that there is a market for it, with nanny surveillance companies reporting business having doubled in the past few years. So we sent the BBC's man in New York, Andrew Purcell out on nanny surveillance.

ANDREW PURCELL: Tamara Pilblad is a private investigator with an unusual "specialism". She doesn't expose fraud or theft or adultery, instead she makes her living by keeping nannies and baby sitters under surveillance. She says America's child care industry is dangerously under regulated and open to abuse.

TAMARA PILBLAD: I have seen nannies who go all the way up to the Bronx to purchase drugs. I have seen nannies just completely ignore the child or children whom they're watching. And then I've seen things as extreme as a nanny having sex with their boyfriend in the same room that the crib is in and then handling the baby without washing her hands.

ANDREW PURCELL: For around a hundred dollars a day, her clients get custom fitted nanny cams installed in their house hidden inside a book, a cuddly³ toy, a clock radio, anywhere that's inconspicuous and has a good view of the room to secretly film what happens there.

TAMARA PILBLAD: A family have smoke alarms in the ceiling, the nanny isn't going to notice if they have some smoke alarms on the wall. They get a very wide angle picture, a hundred and ten degree view with sound, of what's going on when they're at work.

ANDREW PURCELL: I spoke⁴ with a young woman named Barbara who's paid to look after a nine year old girl on week days. And she told me that New York's nannies know that there is a good chance of them being watched.

BARBARA: I don't really know people who have been confronted but every body talks about it, about nanny cams and then everybody is always speculating like "Oh does he have one?" It's really… we know it's around here, the nanny cams, especially in New York. But I would like the parents to tell me about it before they like, get it.

ANDREW PURCELL: The International Nanny Association agrees with her. It strongly recommends that parents inform their child minders if they plan to videotape them. But as the INA's vice⁵ president, Suzanne Tuckire admits that's usually not what happens.

SUZANNE TUCKIRE: Let's a nanny applies to us. We've never worked with her before and we're checking her references. We will have families who she worked with saying "Oh we know she was wonderful, we were videotaping her" or you know, have a nanny cam and the nanny had no idea.

ANDREW PURCELL: When it comes to secret recordings⁶, New York is a one party consent state, which means that as long as one person gives permission, it's legal to listen in on their conversations with other people. Parents can grant this consent on behalf of their toddlers so it's not against the law to film a child minder without his or her knowledge. Mark, who didn't want to give his last name, is a single parent with a three year old daughter. And he hired a nanny cam system last year when she started getting small, inexplicable⁷ bruises⁸.

MARK: I saw the nanny being what I consider to be brutal⁹. My daughter was sitting at the end of the couch, just being as quiet as possible, she would look that way, the nanny would just stare at her and for I don't know what reason, I just saw the nanny grab her by the arm and smash her into the side of the couch. I just, I left work, I was disgusted, I went home and I actually fired that nanny and stayed home. I've since hired a terrific nanny, I have a third nanny cam installed, I mean I'm so glad I do. Wherever I go, anytime, I can always tune¹⁰ in and I could look at the different rooms and it's just such a comfort to know.

ANDREW PURCELL: For Mark, checking and rechecking the video streams on his desk top has become part of his daily routine. Mark's surveillance system on its own runs to almost a thousand dollars a month. The upper west side of Manhattan where Tamara Pilblad does business is one of the richest areas of one of the richest cities in the world but she denies that her clients are just overprotective millionaires.

TAMARA PILBLAD: It's really not about people who are rich, it's about people who understand that the person watching your child is a virtual stranger and they love their children and they want to do what's best for their children.

ANDREW PURCELL: The trouble with nanny cams is that they don't go to the park when your child does. A number of websites already exist to warn anxious mothers about bad child care in public places, among them "I Saw Your Nanny" and "L.A. Nanny Watch". But for the truly concerned, and very well off, Pilblad offers GPS tracking, using chips hidden in cars or strollers that could be monitored by satellite. Or old fashioned covert¹¹ surveillance: following a nanny around in person for seventy five dollars an hour.

TAMARA PILBLAD: Parent's go away, say eight o'clock and don't return till seven o'clock. There's a lot of dead time where a nanny may decide to go visit her boyfriend at his place. It's just a matter of integrity and knowing that your nanny has exposed your child to a whole other group of people who you didn't have the chance to interview or meet.

REPORTER: Andrew Purcell there, reporting for Culture Shock.

父母们付钱请私人侦探监视保姆

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记者：欢迎收听《文化冲击》节目，我们在加纳的街道上看到这个新趋向，亲自动手调整SIM卡，我们现在去美国看一下。

对于许多人来说，付钱请保姆照顾他们的孩子可能是一项昂贵的业务。但是现在在纽约，父母们更进一步地付钱请私人侦探监视照顾他们孩子的保姆。大约一个小时85美元，一个私家侦探就会亲自或者用专门适合监视保姆的辅助设备暗中监视你家的保姆。他们会检查你的保姆和孩子在哪里，他们和谁在一起，甚至是你的孩子被丢下哭了多久。这听起来很过分吗？似乎这还是有市场的，据家政服务公司报告这一行业在近几年来市场需求加倍了。因此我们派BBC的记者安德鲁·普瑟尔到纽约采访家政服务公司。

安德鲁·普瑟尔：塔马拉·皮布德是一位异常"专业"的私人侦探。她不是去侦破欺诈、偷盗或通奸，而是靠监视保姆和临时保姆谋生。她说美国儿童保育产业在控制上还很危险，公开地虐待。

塔马拉·皮布德：我曾经见过保姆远道而去布朗克斯购买药品。我见过保姆完全无视他们照看的那个孩子或者孩子们。而且我还看到这样极端的事情保姆和他们的男朋友在与婴儿睡觉的同一个房间发生性关系，紧接着照顾孩子时都不洗手。

安德鲁·普瑟尔：大约一天一百美元，她的客户习惯在他们家安装适合监视保姆的辅助设施隐藏在一本书里，一个抱着让人舒服的玩具，有钟表的收音机，总之任何不显眼的地方，而且要有一个房间的好视角来秘密拍摄所发生的事。

塔马拉·皮布德：每个家庭在天花板上都安装了烟气报警器，保姆没有注意到是否他们在墙上也安装了烟气报警器。这样当他们工作时，就能得到一个有着110度宽的视角的图片，听到他们所说的话，可以知道发生了什么事。

安德鲁·普瑟尔：我现在采访的是一位叫做芭芭拉的年轻女士，她被雇用在工作日照顾一个九岁的女孩。她告诉我纽约的保姆都知道她们有一个好的机会被监视。

芭芭拉：我真的不知道人们会有这种遭遇，但是每个人都在谈论这件事，谈论监视保姆的仪器，大家总是在推测，总是有像这样的问题"他有吗？"这真的……，我们都知道这个仪器就在我们周围，特别是在纽约。但是我总想让父母们在他们愿意的情况下告诉我，然后我知道它在哪里。

安德鲁·普瑟尔：国际保姆协会也同意她的意见。协会强烈建议如果父母们想要监视他们的保姆，就应该通知她们。但是Suzanne Tuckire（国际保姆协会的副主席）承认通常这不会发生。

苏詹·塔克尔：让保姆来适应我们吧。我们以前从来没有和她一起工作过，我们核实了她的资料。我们会听到以前用过她的家庭说："我们知道她干的非常好，我们拍摄过她。"或者你知道，有这样一个监视仪器，而保姆根本就不知道。

安德鲁·普瑟尔：当谈到秘密录音时，纽约是一个允许这种状况存在的城市，意思是说只要一个人得到允许的话，偷听她们和其他人的谈话是合法的。父母们能以他们孩子的名义得到这种许可，因此在他或者她不知情的情况下，拍摄保姆是不违法的。马克，一位不愿意告诉他的姓的单身父亲，他有一个三岁的女儿。当他发现他的女儿身上有一些小的莫名其妙的瘀伤时，他在去年安装了一个监视保姆的系统。

马克：我看到我们家的保姆是凶残的。我的女儿坐在长椅的边上，尽可能安静地坐在那里，她看起来是那样，保姆盯着她，我都不知道是什么原因，我就看见保姆一把抓住她的胳膊，猛地就把她扔回长椅上。我马上把工作丢下，我感到很厌恶，我回到家里就想解雇了那个保姆，呆在家里陪女儿。我既然雇佣了一个可恶的保姆，我就又安了第三个保姆监视器，我觉得我很高兴那样做。无论我在哪里，什么时候，我都能占主动权，我都能看到不同的房间的情况，就可以了如指掌了。

安德鲁·普瑟尔：对于马克来讲，检查又检查他办公桌上的视频系统成为他日常生活的一部分了。马克的监视系统就其本身的运行几乎一个月一千元。塔马拉·皮布德在曼哈顿的西区做侦探，这里是世界上最富有城市中最富有的区域，但是她否认她的客户是一些过分溺爱的有钱人。

塔马拉·皮布德：这和有钱没有关系，人们要明白照顾你孩子的实际上是一个陌生人，他们做父母的只是很爱他们的孩子，他们想尽自己最大的努力保护好他们的孩子。

安德鲁·普瑟尔：安装了监视器的麻烦是当你的孩子去了公园时，仪器不会跟着也去。许多网站已经在提醒焦虑的母亲，关于在公众场合保姆恶劣的照顾。里面有"我看见你的保姆"和"L.A.保姆监视"。但是真正关注的是，皮布德使用GPS定位系统追踪，把芯片隐藏在汽车里或者散步车上，这样就能通过卫星定位来监测了。要么就是老式的秘密监视：亲自跟在保姆周围，一个小时75美元。

塔马拉·皮布德：父母们出去，说是八点钟就回来，结果七点钟就回来了。有大量的固定时间，保姆可以决定出去和她的男朋友在某个地方约会。这就是所有的事，你要知道你的保姆把你的孩子带到一个你没有见过的其他群体中。

记者：这就安德鲁·普瑟尔带来的《文化冲击》节目的报道。

1 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

2 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

3 cuddly   

adj.抱着很舒服的，可爱的

参考例句：

• The beautiful crib from Mom and Dad is so cuddly.爸爸妈妈送的漂亮婴儿床真舒服。
• You can't call a hedgehog cuddly.你不能说刺猬逗人喜爱。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

7 inexplicable   

adj.无法解释的，难理解的

参考例句：

• It is now inexplicable how that development was misinterpreted.当时对这一事态发展的错误理解究竟是怎么产生的，现在已经无法说清楚了。
• There are many things which are inexplicable by science.有很多事科学还无法解释。

8 bruises   

n.瘀伤，伤痕，擦伤( bruise的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was covered with bruises after falling off his bicycle. 他从自行车上摔了下来，摔得浑身伤痕。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The pear had bruises of dark spots. 这个梨子有碰伤的黑斑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

10 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

11 covert   

adj.隐藏的；暗地里的

参考例句：

• We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。
• The army carried out covert surveillance of the building for several months.军队对这座建筑物进行了数月的秘密监视。