The unprecedented over-abundance of surveillance of the inhabitants of England has taken a further turn for the worst. It's spreading to involve children at school! :mad:

from The IndependentOnline today

Almost six million children at 17,000 schools could have their fingerprints taken, intensifying fears of the growth of a "surveillance society" where personal information is gathered from cradle to grave.

As soaring numbers of schools require pupils to have biometric checks to register in the morning, buy canteen food or borrow a book, it emerged that less than one-quarter of local education authorities have banned collecting fingerprints.

The rest either allow it or have no policy on the issue, potentially enabling headteachers to gather biometric data from about 5.9 million English schoolchildren as young as four without telling their parents.

The loophole provoked a civil liberties row last night, with the Government facing demands to introduce a code of practice to prevent such information being collected without permission.

Plans are already under way to hold details of all children in a single register to be launched next year and Tony Blair has said he wants all youngsters monitored for signs of criminality.

The number of schools that could potentially fingerprint pupils was obtained by the Tories in freedom of information requests to all English and Welsh local education authorities.

Damian Green, Tory home affairs spokesman, said: "This is very disturbing. Most parents would be horrified to know their children might be fingerprinted without their knowledge and without knowing what happens to that information in the future. As a country we need to wake up to what's happening - we're getting more and more surveillance of our lives without a proper public debate about what's happening."

Thousands of schools have already bought software to record the biometric data of youngsters, including fingerprints and photographs. It is used for smart cards to speed up taking the attendance register and give children easier access to libraries and meals.

The growth in the technology - without safeguards on how the information is stored or deleted after a child has left their school - has aroused controversy.


Is this really the type of future Society you want yourself, your children and their children to live in?

Britain stands alone in it's outrageous level of snooping on its own people!

Subjecting our free-born, innocent children in this abuse of technology is a step too far!.

Do you agree?

Full story here (http://education.independent.co.uk/news/article2434942.ece)

As far as I am aware, from previous stories, the fingerprints are analysed and then stored in such a way so the original fingerprint (which is destroyed) can never be reconstructed from the data. Only a few identification points are kept and these could never be used for any other purpose.

They have started doing this in my sons school and there has been uproar about it

I'm confused. Why are fingerprints or any other biometric data necessary to borrow a book or buy a meal?

What's wrong with... "Name?" :confused:

We have a Parliament with MP's in it who have totally lost contact with the people of our Nation.

The new technology fascinates them, and they are addicted to using it......and each time they do, at great cost to the taxpayer and great profit to software companies, our freedom as individuals are being taken away one by one.

It wouldn't be such a waste of money if their databases worked, but the scandalous failures of same are costing a fortune in errors and programming revision. :(

I googled "Computer Failures in NHS".................

There are dozens of pages relating to that one section of Government computer applications...........

This is the first one on the list

Just 110 examples of failure in the Government's Use of Computers (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/19/nhospital19.xml)

As far as I am aware, from previous stories, the fingerprints are analysed and then stored in such a way so the original fingerprint (which is destroyed) can never be reconstructed from the data.

A one-way encryption.

I'm confused. Why are fingerprints or any other biometric data necessary to borrow a book or buy a meal?

What's wrong with... "Name?" :confused:

people lie cheat and steal.

fingerprinting should be compulsory imho,in more circumstances than this one.

people lie cheat and steal.

fingerprinting should be compulsory imho,in more circumstances than this one.

Not all people lie, cheat and steal........a vast minority of people/schoolchildren do that!

Without consent surely it is illegal?

Not all people lie, cheat and steal........a vast minority of people/schoolchildren do that!

but as usual the minority affect the majority.
it's a minority that rape, burgle and steal cars - but yet it's always mentioned by the "victims" that enough isn't being done.

something serious needs doing and it need to start @ grass root levels, either id cards or fingerprinting.
whilst people bleat on about minorities and civil rights we all keep getting shafted.

I`m not sure whether i agree with it or not i need to think long and hard about it but one advantage would be that it could serve as a deterrent to commit crime in later life if all the information is already held in a database and accessible to the police.

I`m not sure whether i agree with it or not i need to think long and hard about it but one advantage would be that it could serve as a deterrent to commit crime in later life if all the information is already held in a database and accessible to the police.

:hihi: :hihi: :hihi:

So all innocents should be fingerprinted, maybe, in case a few may become criminals at some later stage in their lives......and make it easier for the police? And what if it's your offspring and the Software fails to identify the real person?

Heres a list of (with the exception of the first item, a U.S Computer System Failure) a list of those U.K Government Computer System Failures:-

http://aberwiki.org/Government_IT_Failures

All for it. :thumbsup:

The positives outweigh the negatives for the law abiding citizen in my opinion.

What's the point of fingerprinting children (or indeed anyone) in case they commit future crimes, when our pathetic policing and judicial system will let them off with a paltry sentence anyway? If it were a real deterrent to crime, i'd be all for it.
Its probably going to be used to track their future consumer habits, if owt!

All for it. :thumbsup:

The positives outweigh the negatives for the law abiding citizen in my opinion.

That's why they called you "Inky Fingers" at school. :)

:hihi: :hihi: :hihi:

So all innocents should be fingerprinted, maybe, in case a few may become criminals at some later stage in their lives......and make it easier for the police? And what if it's your offspring and the Software fails to identify the real person?

Heres a list of (with the exception of the first item, a U.S Computer System Failure) a list of those U.K Government Computer System Failures:-

http://aberwiki.org/Government_IT_Failures


and as a reposte should i include have gone untraced , which would you prefer.
conspiracy theories and 1 in a billion risk or an attempt to reduce crime at early stages.
we've only had one real crime committed against a family member - and the criminal was caught through fringerprint i.d

and as a reposte should i include have gone untraced , which would you prefer.
conspiracy theories and 1 in a billion risk or an attempt to reduce crime at early stages.
we've only had one real crime committed against a family member - and the criminal was caught through fringerprint i.d

So was the offender aged between 4 and 11 years old then? :)

people lie cheat and steal.

fingerprinting should be compulsory imho,in more circumstances than this one.

For school dinners?

Methinks you need a keener sense of proportion here.

They should take fingerprints and dna to be fair, crimes could be solved much more quickly. Once convicted, one could be implanted with a chip to monitor whereabouts with time, this could be used to prove if a person was present at a crime scene.

For school dinners?

Methinks you need a keener sense of proportion here.

nope, but ask any school how much the losses are for school books,library books and equipment.
they may not be responsible for everything but it would certainly be a deterrent to those who did perpertrate such crimes.

The unprecedented over-abundance of surveillance of the inhabitants of England has taken a further turn for the worst. It's spreading to involve children at school! :mad:



Is this really the type of future Society you want yourself, your children and their children to live in?

Britain stands alone in it's outrageous level of snooping on its own people!

Subjecting our free-born, innocent children in this abuse of technology is a step too far!.

Do you agree?

Full story here (http://education.independent.co.uk/news/article2434942.ece)

I agree absolutely and hate the way the current government want to watch and spy on everything we do.

[snip] it would certainly be a deterrent to those who did perpertrate such crimes.

Do you really think so?

Do you really think so?


yep certainly do.
it might stop everything but i do see it as more beneficial to society in general than the conspiracy theorists.

So by your reckoning we introduce fingerprinting to stop children eating school dinners and reading school books?

:huh:

Anyone who is interested in campaigning against this could join Action on Rights for Children

http://www.arch-ed.org/issues.htm

who are doing some good work, and who have already managed to delay some uses of technology in schools, such as scanners which give an image of each child naked as they enter the door, which were intended for use to scan for weapons, but which breached the child pornography laws.

http://www.leavethemkidsalone.com/ spells out the risks of allowing this data to be collected for your child.

Anyone who is interested in campaigning against this could join Action on Rights for Children

http://www.arch-ed.org/issues.htm

who are doing some good work, and who have already managed to delay some uses of technology in schools, such as scanners which give an image of each child naked as they enter the door, which were intended for use to scan for weapons, but which breached the child pornography laws.

http://www.leavethemkidsalone.com/ spells out the risks of allowing this data to be collected for your child.


The links you have provided are excellent, hennypenny. :thumbsup:

I hope SF Members really will read them thoroughly. Children, and people living in a "Free Nation" deserve much better than schemes such as these from a supposed "democratic" Government. :(