I’m in Portugal with kids right now and I can not think of a country where dashcams would be more useful.

The standard of driving and adherence to the law of the roads is some of the worst I’ve encountered in Europe.

I haven’t let go of my 9yo’s hand since we arrived in Porto a few days ago. Speeding is chronic and nobody gives a shit for the safety of you or your children here.

Recording everything has a lot of upsides. Unfortunately, downsides for privacy and democracy are very real.

Talking about speeding, not sure. I am driving around Lisbon and speed limit is 50 in city, and lots of speed cameras. Though I am driving at 55 as limit and rarely see anyone going faster than that.

You are in a new country and feel that your kid needs protection, which is perfectly human, but does mean that your opinion is a bit biased.

As sibling comments mention, countries exist with many cameras, public or private, where driving feels worse. I didn't look at road deaths, but I'd be surprised if Portugal is among the leading countries on this.

Equally, if you take a bit of distance, you can realise that Portugal has many other parents living there, yet they are not clamouring for more surveillance: it's difficult to imagine that the Portuguese dictatorial government is evilly preventing its people from accessing the benefits of surveillance.

In Greece and Italy they drive at least as bad as in Portugal, if not much worse, and dashcams are perfectly legal.