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29 Oct 2007
A monitoring system which tags secondary school children by embedding a radio frequency identification chip in their school uniforms is under way in Hungerhill School in Doncaster.
Ten pupils have had a memory microchip discreetly embedded into their school badge identifying them the moment they step into the classroom, according to the Doncaster Free Press.
"The school is trialling the project and carrying out a variety of tests to measure compatibility with a range of school information management systems," said Hungerhill head teacher Graham Wakeling.
The tagging system has been on trial since February and provides immediate registration of the children as they enter the classroom, helping teachers and support staff as they as they familiarise themselves with new students.
Pupils are linked directly to the curriculum they are following and to assessment data stored on the school's information management system.
Trevor Darnborough, the microchip's inventor, said that his product is the subject of a patent application and that, following a successful trial at Hungerhill, he will look to make inroads into the £300m market for school clothing.
"We believe that the system will work equally well in corporate and commercial situations, and we are now seeking backing to help us attack a huge potential market," he said.
But the trial has drawn criticism from civil liberty campaigners who argue that such schemes should apply to criminals rather than schoolchildren.
"To put this in a school badge is complete and utter surveillance of the children," said David Clouter, a parent and founder of the Leave Them Kids Alone organisation.
"Tagging is what we do to criminals we let out of prison early. With pupils being fingerprinted, and now this [tagging system] it seems we are treating children in a way that we have traditionally treated criminals."
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Do you agree?
Easy to kill this chip
Just put the school badge in a microwave oven for a minute to destroy the chip i will doing this if they want to spy on ny child.
Posted by: Andy 07 Nov 2007
stupid people
look here you complain about your kids rights and that they don't have any privacy and the first time they og out and smoke weed or have sex and get pregenat at 14 and 15 or get kidnapped then you want to go and montior them and see what there doing but its to late then so why not save yourself the trouble now and tag them with the chip some of you parents give your child to much freedom you got to be a parent before you be a friend watch them now before its to late
Posted by: cat 06 Nov 2007
Health Issue with RFID
A standard Wifi Access point produces less radiation than a mobile phone. An RFID chips is the size of a grain of rice, so unless you covered yourself in them i can't see how that miniscule bit of radiation will be any different from background radiation, PLUS in my school 90% of the kids have a mobile phone, and considering that they use their phone for texting/calls far more often than an adult they are getting zapped by a higher dose of radiation on a daily basis, does that mean that we should stop anyone under the age of 18 from having one? and lets not forget New games consoles use wireless controllers, and i know kids that play for 3 - 4 hours a night, Cordless phones give off radiation. In fact i think i'll go get my kids some lead lined underwear. Sorry but if you go back and look for your facts again, you will find that it's still an open verdict on how harmful wifi radiation is. I know that from talking to parents that less than 10 parents from a school containing over 1000 pupils have any reservations, and before you ask we made a point of informing all the parents of all the posibilities after the BBC program on the subject was shown.
Posted by: Neo 02 Nov 2007
Health Issue with RFID
Most do not see the Health Issue. What health issue do you ask? WIFI. So many schools have installed WIFI without thinking about it. If you search youll find that there is plenty of examples why not to use wifi - it is radiation. So where ever you have rfid, you have wireless radiation. The kids wont just be nudged in to acceptance, their health will be distroyed as well. WIFI effects the entire body, read up on cellphone radiation and wifi. There are plenty of scientific studies on this, see www.emf-portal.de/_index.php
Posted by: Dave 31 Oct 2007
this is merely an exercise...
... they are testing this Orwellian thing on the young, so they will become used to the idea while they grow. There will be less and less opposition to this as time goes by, as generations succeed. They are counting on you sheeple to head this way... And to surrender your kids for the sake of a safer life.
Posted by: Mircea 30 Oct 2007
Oh for #### sake
It's a great idea. I work in a school and the registers are never acurate due to kids sodding about, being late, the teacher not hearing them, putting in the wrong mark by accident. This would solve all the problems. I'd be quite happy for my kids to be chipped. Imagine there's a fire and the school is evacuated, The register to check for missing students would takes seconds (a single swipe of a reader over their badge)meaning that anyone not accounted for would be picked up sooner and if they were trapped would have a better chance of survival. The system could also tell you roughly where they are in the building, by looking at the last place the RFID trasnmitted from. Vandalism would go down. The school could say... " well that object was damaged between this time & that time and according to your badge you were there". Students would have no need to carry money. Lunches could be paid for in advance to the school office, and all the student has to do is get their badge swiped. The students would never need to remember passwords for computers. they would just sity down, scan their badge and they're in. Yes even I can see there will be teething problems, due to students taking off their badges and getting other students to register them, Swapping badges with other people to confuse the system, but that's why they have trials. I'm sorry but i've worked in a few schools over the past 10 years and the one thing i can definately say is the last thing you should ever do is LEAVE THEM KIDS ALONE. This doesn't affect their rights, it helps keep them safe. Now surely that must be a good thing?
Posted by: Neo 30 Oct 2007