American summer camps are reportedly using facial recognition software to allow parents to receive daily updates on their children's wellbeing.

Residential camps are a traditional part of the summer for many American kids, with outdoor activities and sports featuring heavily in the campers' programmes.

But in a twist to the historically rustic nature of the summer programmes, many camps have now begun using facial-recognition software to enable parents to monitor how their children are faring.

Hundreds of camps across the country are believed to using the technology this summer, which works by identifying individual children from a distance and sending email or text picture updates to their parents.

One such camp, Camp Echo in upstate New York, sends as many as ten notifications a day according to parents.

One parent, David Hiller, told the Washington Post that he received notifications whenever his two daughters are photographed doing things like going water-skiing or making a new friend during their seven-week stay at the camp. He said Camp Echo alerts him and his wife almost instantly whenever it uploads its tranche of at least 1,000 pictures a day for parents.