Techno babble

My kids taught me how to use a video (or how I learned to love technology).

Recently completed research by the OCC (Office of the Children's Commissioner) has, once again, highlighted growing concern with the UK governments drive to gather data on everyone starting with children and the Children's Information Sharing Index. Recommendations by the report concluded that government departments should give serious consideration to maintaining data quality. While the teenagers interviewed expressed concern about data integrity, that concern was more of the type: how secure is the data, who will have access and whether it was really necessary to have such a concentration of data and the implications thereof (the OCC also recommended limited access by child care practitioners).

The fact that many expressed concern over having such a concentration of data and the security of that data shows the kind of awareness which many parents seem to lack. In my opinion, it is time for parents to wake up and realise what the potential implications are for a child's future should such pernicious practices become a reality. And they are rapidly becoming a reality.

Schools in the UK were recently given the legal right to fingerprint (take biometric data) from all school children. As with the Children's Information Sharing Index, those schools implementing the technology claim that it has only advantages. It will aid the care and development of each and every child and so lead to a better and fairer world.

In addition to all of this, by the age of 12, all children will be finger printed for an EU-wide ID scheme. Furthermore, Tony Blair's Childrens Minister Hilary Armstrong has completed research which is claimed will allow for the identification of problem children prior to birth - even though such predicative research has been widely discredited by academics!

Isn't this all fantastic, children will be protected, no one will get hurt, everyone gets what they need? Yes, and isn't living in a (benign?) dictatorship just fantastic! Especially one which labels my child a criminal before it's born, allows institutions to maintain concentrated pools of highly personal data where there are no effective structural safe guards on data access, where when a kid steals another's milkshake the local rozzers get free and easy access to biometric data. The reasons why this is so wrong are endless, and the reasons why such plans are right so short.

I have to admit an intense interest in all of this. As a father-to-be, I have every intention of ensuring that my child does not have its finger prints taken and held on the local schools database which a 12 year old could hack. And, even where head teachers have said finger printing will be optional, so far all evidence points to fingerprinting having been steam-rolled through.

So, parents stand up for your childrens rights, say no to ID madness, write to your MP (http://www.writetothem.com/) about the Children's Information Sharing Index and don't let your school finger print its pupils. Oh and get your child to teach you about the fundamental implications of such intrusive technology.

Alternatively see here:

That's all for now folks, back again soon.


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