I recently had the pleasure of accompanying a group of students from Sponne and Campion Schools to the Houses of Parliament. We spent the morning learning about the history and present practice of one of the oldest democracies in the world.
But over our sandwiches afterwards, sitting on a wall in the drizzle of a cold Monday in Westminster, one of the students raised an issue with me that I found truly shocking.
He wanted to know if I thought that fingerprinting/iris scanning of children in schools might breach their Human Rights under EU legislation. I was surprised by the question as, until he explained further, I was unaware that millions of our children are right now being required by their schools to have fingerprints or iris scans done in order to borrow a library book or buy their lunch.
How would you feel if the government suddenly passed a law that every adult had to be fingerprinted at their local police station? Yet schools it would appear have accumulated fingerprint or iris data on millions of children, some as young as three. And apparently often without their parents consent.
My student friend told me that a member of his family working in security systems believes that with a few hundred pounds of ‘hacking’ equipment, it would be possible to sit in a car outside the school gates and collect all that data. The lifelong permanently distinguishing data of children at risk of being lost or stolen, and for what?
I really fear for the direction this country is headed in. There are so many examples of data being lost or stolen – collecting this permanent record of a human being should only be done for extreme reasons and certainly not for the purpose of identifying whose library book is due back.
We risk the next generation growing up with an acceptance of cradle-to-grave state snooping and control, with all the errors and potential for identity theft that will ensue. What’s more, millions of pounds of tax payers money must be being wasted on installing fingerprint/iris readers in schools.
I looked at a website www.leavethemkidsalone.com and saw that Liverpool Council has rejected this recording of children. I will be writing to Northants County Council in the hope that they will do likewise.
Comment by Jazz on January 2, 2010 at 7:55 pm
I work in schools and I know the “evil equipment” you are talking about. Frankly, I’m sick of hearing these scare stories. The TRUTH of the matter is this “evil equipment” as it’s seen is actually very cheap lowtech scanners. What they store is NOT a fingerprint, or retina scan, or anything identifiable whatsoever. They just store a hash generated by the pattern. It’s so generic that they usually ask for the first letter of the pupils name to even give it a chance of matching the right one! This number is as “big brother” as giving them a barcode to be scanned, an ID card to get into a building, or a number to remember. The only difference is they don’t have to remember it (which is asking a lot at primary level!).
The kids who use it all enjoy it and find it exciting, even if it is so primative and unreliable, and they often contest for who gets to help out and do the scanning. Most parents have no problem being told their kid has a number that has been assigned to them which is accessible by use of their thumb (most of the time, like I said it’s hardly military grade). It certainly doesn’t breach any hallowed human rights (which more often than not protect criminals than citisens).
They’re inexpensive, un-identifiable with the child (just a random) number – they’re fun for kids – there is no danger of anyone outside the school having access to it (unless they have wifi networks, and even then most times the library pc won’t be using wireless) – and it is deleted as soon as they left the school and removed from the library database.
I find all these scare stories pathetic fear-mongering against an evil machine that doesn’t exist. It’s just convinience for the already over-burdoned schools and easy fun for kids.
If anyone cared about pupil records, they’d have have a problem with living in a country where various state departments track everyone – where they live, what they do for a living, how much they earn – and that everyone has various other “unique IDs” such as social security numbers. If you think that’s a problem then you’re probably scare mongering and should probably consider living under a rock from now on and refusing to sign anything or use any money or register to voting or anything else – good luck with that! Scare mongers – leave the kids alone, indeed!
Comment by joe on January 2, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Finger prints as detected by scanners are no use for crime prevention purposes. Most scanners measure the blood vessels under the skin. So your concerns about human rights are unfounded. So if it helps reduce costs (less lost library cards, fewer stolen books) then it is worth it.
Comment by Disorganised1 on January 2, 2010 at 8:10 pm
As a governor I recently resisted the suggestion that body scanners be used at the scholl to look for knives on pupils as they entered the premises.
The headteacher and I agreed that this was not only an intrusion on pupils rights, but an assumption of guilt that should not be allowed.
Comment by James on January 2, 2010 at 8:22 pm
I am a 16 year old student and a programmer. There are two of us at school who are exponentially more experienced than the IT admin. We are able to unlock every block they have come up with, including Securus, generic blocks, Dans Guardian and VLE filtering. We are not cocky, simply, by practice we know what we are doing and we are experts in our field.
If our school brought in this kind of security, it would not just undermine our rights, it would not take us long to access all of their collected data, I imagine this is similar everywhere else.
Comment by Ray Turner on January 2, 2010 at 8:26 pm
This is becoming a habit. Once again, I completely and unreservedly agree…
Comment by Ruth O’Hare on January 2, 2010 at 11:13 pm
The quality of school scanners isn’t the issue, it really is about conditioning children to accept “cradle-to-grave state snooping and control”. State schools are used to do a lot of social engineering and this is just another part of that. Adults are being very ‘difficult’ about the current government’s desire for a national ID database and accompanying cards so what better plan for the long term than training the next generation to accept it as normal?
Comment by Death or Tory on January 3, 2010 at 12:06 pm
Welcome to ‘The 4th Reich’ Andrea – the EU monster is now unstoppable…
Comment by Lee on January 3, 2010 at 12:37 pm
On the face of it, this may seem like a small issue but so do all the government’s other measures individually – restrictions on hate speech, stop and search, lengthening of pre-charge detention, but together they’re a serious threat to overall freedom. The state should only collect information where vital – not convenient or useful. I hope the Conservatives will set statutory guidelines for schools and include provisions in their Bill of Rights on such issues.
Pingback by Security and biometric collection in schools « The meanderings of a mammal on January 3, 2010 at 6:48 pm
[...] freedom — Alistair @ 18:48 Tags: conservative, Liberty, Politics, rambling On the Blue Blog an article talks about fingerprinting and biometric collection in schools. The collection is used to then manage a [...]
Comment by FBB on January 4, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Just another reason why I will home educate my children!!
Comment by Paul Topham on January 6, 2010 at 7:31 pm
What the UK needs is someone like Obama. Someon who can see the real issues and offer real solutions.
We do not need a conservative party, or labour party. But leaders who make a difference.
What we need is Obama Politics. Clear and open, solution driven and focused on the needs of the people.
What we need is Obama Politics.
Paul
Comment by Chris D on January 7, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Paul, Obama is just as keen on collecting biometric information on all U.S citizens, via Homeland Security. It is about sneaking up on the populus, inch by inch, so that they are not panicked by sudden moves…..get them “used to” doing this, and now get them acquainted with “that”, and then “something else”….so that, after a few years, people meekly accept all form of control and personal probing because they have been conditioned. Most adults deny that anyone could “condition” them but it happens every day. Andrea is right, it has to be stopped.,,,,for all age groups.
Comment by David Knight on January 29, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Paul, with due respect Obama has only been in power a year and in fact has not achieved anything yet for all his oratory skills. I am not saying he wont, and I agree what we need now is leadership, vision and direction. There are many who do not like Obama’s politics, but we will see how his polcies turn out in time. Meanwhile, for gods sake Britain, lets get rid of baffoon Brown !
Comment by Louise on February 26, 2010 at 8:59 am
Good Grief, Thank goodness I home educate, the education system sucks anyway. Why don’t Labour just micro-chip all children at birth – I bet the time will come – mark my words
Comment by David on May 3, 2010 at 9:36 am
the gradual creep of small infringements is exactly the problem. This labour government is positively dangerous. Liberties which people died for are being given away with a nano-second’s thought. anyone who can remember 5 minutes of history tuition from their schooldays will know that this is exactly how authoritarian dictatorships begin. with erosion of inocuous liberties. Andrea, rock on….