Best-selling children's book The Elf On The Shelf is a disturbing cultural phenomenon which instills in young children the idea that a surveillance state is perfectly acceptable, claims a university professor.

Laura Pinto, a digital technology professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, has published a paper in which she argues that the elf has a very sinister undertow.

In her recently published paper, Who's The Boss, she claims that the idea of the elf reporting back to Santa each night on the child's behavior 'sets up children for dangerous, uncritical acceptance of power structures.'

Professor Laura Pinto believes that the idea of an elf reporting back to Santa each night on a child's behavior 'sets up children for dangerous, uncritical acceptance of power structures'

Since it was first published in 2005, The Elf On The Shelf has quickly become an integral part of modern Christmas celebrations. It has sold over six million copies and in 2013 was included as a float in the Macy's Thanksgiving parade for the first time.

The story describes how Santa's 'scout elves' hide in people's homes to watch over events.

Once everyone goes to bed, the scout elf then flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa the activities - both 'naughty' and 'nice' - that have taken place throughout the day.

Before the family wakes up each morning, the scout elf flies back from the North Pole and hides.

By hiding in a new spot each morning around the house, the scout elf and the family play an on-going game of hide and seek.

Pinto has called the elf 'an external form of non-familial surveillance,' and says it is potentially conditioning children to accept state surveillance too.

Since it was first published in 2005, The Elf On The Shelf has sold over 6 million copies and in 2013 it was included as a float in the Macy's Thanksgiving parade for the first time

'If you grow up thinking it's cool for the elves to watch me and report back to Santa, well, then it's cool for the NSA to watch me and report back to the government,' she told Inside Halton.

Pinto isn't the first person to criticize and question the message that The Elf On The Shelf teaches kids.

Atlantic columnist Kate Tuttle called it 'a marketing juggernaut dressed up as a "tradition"', and its purpose 'to spy on kids' as inappropriate for the holiday season.

Washington Post reviewer Hank Stuever characterized the concept as 'just another nannycam in a nanny state obsessed with penal codes.'

Writing for Psychology Today, Dr. David Kyle Johnston called it a 'dangerous parental crutch', with much the same reasoning as what he terms the 'Santa lie.'

The best-selling book was written and self-published by American author Carol Aebersold and her daughter Chanda Bell

In her paper, Pinto also argues that the book teaches children to potentially cater to The Elf On The Shelf as the 'other,' rather than engaging in and honing understandings of social relationships with peers, parents, teachers and 'real life' others.