Just Check the Camera, Dad
He was right. The footage existed. I told him it was inadmissible anyway.
Read the full essayFull show notes
“Just check the camera, Dad.” When Ryan Vet’s young son tried to settle a sibling fight with security footage, it exposed how quietly surveillance has replaced trust in our homes, schools, and workplaces.
A knocked-over tower, two boys, and one request that stopped generational futurist Ryan Vet cold: pull up the camera and let the video decide who was guilty. In this episode of The Ryan Vet Show, USA TODAY bestselling author and international keynote speaker Ryan Vet argues that trust is load-bearing, and that every timestamp, location dot, and pulse oximeter we bolt onto a child’s life quietly removes the friction where trust is actually built. This is the second installment of a mini-series on proof, trust, and what shapes the next generation entering the future of work.
Key Takeaways
Trust cannot be bought, installed, or prompted into existence. It is earned slowly and destroyed in a split second, and it grows in exactly the friction we keep sanding away with surveillance.Childhood surveillance is now the norm, not a fringe habit. About half of parents digitally track their kids’ location on an ongoing basis (Burnell et al., 2023), with some consumer surveys reporting rates as high as 86%.The tracking economy is enormous. Life360 reports roughly 95 million monthly users, and Owlet, maker of the baby oxygen-monitoring sock, cleared over $100 million in revenue last year (Life360, 2026; Owlet, 2026).It started in the marketplace, not the nursery. Shoshana Zuboff called it surveillance capitalism: treating private human experience as free raw material (Zuboff, 2019). We resented being tracked, then turned around and did it to our kids.Watching does not calm the watcher. One in four parents who track their children say it sometimes leaves them more anxious, not less (Clark et al., 2026, C.S. Mott poll).This is a future-of-work problem. Teacher trust in students is the single strongest protector against burnout (Van Maele and Van Houtte, 2015), and Gallup estimates low trust and engagement drain about $10 trillion a year from the global economy (Gallup, 2026).Ryan’s own trust was earned, not tracked. At seventeen he flew nearly 7,000 miles to Beijing alone, with no phone and no way to be tracked, because a lifetime of boundaries and freedom had already proven his word was good.Research and Sources Cited
Burnell et al. (2023), parental digital location tracking, Journal of Family PsychologyClark et al. (2026), Safety or Surveillance, C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s HealthZuboff (2019), The Age of Surveillance CapitalismHenkel (2014), photo-taking-impairment, Psychological ScienceVan Maele and Van Houtte (2015); Tsuyuguchi et al. (2025), teacher trust and burnoutGallup (2026), State of the Global WorkplaceU.S. Surgeon General (2024), Parents Under Pressure advisoryLife360 (2026) and Owlet (2026), full-year resultsRelated listening on The Ryan Vet Show: Tom LeNoble, Facebook employee number 57 (Ep 38), and Kevin Stinehart on rebuilding recess (Ep 31)Connect with Ryan Vet
Read the full Collide essay: https://ryanvet.com/collide/just-check-the-camera-dad/Subscribe to the Collide newsletter: https://ryanvet.com/collideLearn more and book Ryan to speak: https://ryanvet.comSend us Fan Mail
About Ryan VetRyan Vet is a USA TODAY bestselling author, futurist, and international keynote speaker whose insights on generations, culture, and the future of work have been featured in Forbes, Financial Times, ABC, NBC, and CBS. His research helps leaders understand emerging generational patterns and anticipate societal shifts before they fully unfold.
Join 20,000+ Leaders for Weekly InsightsIf you want deeper research and behind-the-scenes insights on generations and the future of culture and society, join Ryan’s weekly newsletter: 👉 https://ryanvet.com/collide
