Biometric schools are already here
“People have to be stark, raving mad to use conventional biometrics to improve the efficiency of a children’s lunch line.” РKim Cameron, architect of identity and access in Microsoft’s connected systems division.
That is just what is happening in UK schools and has been since 2002.
UK schools started fingerprinting children in around 2002. Quietly encouraged by central Government, parents were not generally informed. By 2007, more than 5,000 schools are fingerprinting children, some as young as five, on a daily basis. Over 20 firms now sell school biometric systems, some costing as much as £25,000. Figures obtained by Tory home affairs spokesman Damian Green indicate that up to six million children may be fingerprinted.
Fingerprinting is part of new biometric technology used to identify people. The process has accelerated in schools in the last few years. Biometrics can be used to monitor library book borrowing, as a way to pay for school dinners, and to record school attendance. Thousands of school children across the country have been fingerprinted.
But it gets worse. On 23 July 2007, The Minister for Schools and Learners (Jim Knight) admitted in Parliament that “[the police] could access the data as part of an investigation into a specific crime“.
This system is essentially crimialising chidren from the age of 5 for the rest of their lives and means they are always under close scrutiniy and with their details sitting on a database.
Following on from a recent report about fingerprinting in schools, I speak to Ben Emlyn-Jones, an Oxford father who stood up for civil liberties and banned his daughter’s school from taking her fingerprints. РRNIF Podcast:
http://rinf.com/alt-news/multimedia/rinf-podcast-biometric-schools/851/
From No2ID:
Like the National Identity Register Рthe linked databases at the heart of the ID cards scheme РContactPoint will contain significant amounts of personal information ON EVERY CHILD IN THE UK. Over 300,000 people will have access to the system, which is intended to be up and running by next year. We understand that the details of celebrities’ and public figures’ children may be kept hidden, a two-tier privacy policy that demonstrates the very real security risks such a system introduces.
More information:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6468643.stm
http://www.leavethemkidsalone.com/
Row over fingerprinting children:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/5105238.stm
Going to school still ‘not compulsory’:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6636569.stm
Biometric technology:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/guides/456900/456993/html/default.stm
Other useful links:
No2ID
http://www.no2id.net/
Action on Rights for Children:
http://archrights.wordpress.com/
The Information Commissioner’s Office:
http://www.ico.gov.uk/
Department for Children, Schools and Families:
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/
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