An apparatus for monitoring a vehicle camera system. The vehicle camera system includes at least one camera to capture images of a field of view at a side of the vehicle and a display unit for visualizing the captured images to a driver of the vehicle. The apparatus includes a control unit adapted to control the display unit to display a graphical indicator, the displayed graphical indicator changes sequentially in a default way to allow the driver to visually detect a malfunctioning of the vehicle camera system based on a deviation from the default way of the sequentially changing graphical indicator.