RFID Chips in School Uniforms Track Students

Fri Oct 26, 2007 8:16AM EDT

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How would you feel about this: Tracking chips in kids' school clothing so that school officials can know their whereabouts during the school day?

Oh, it's happening. Ten students in a secondary school in the United Kingdom are being tracked through RFID implants in their school uniforms in a pilot program. Information Week reports that the kids attend Hungerhill School for ages 11-16 in Edenthorpe, England. 

Add the RFID chips to increased video surveillance and fingerprinting of kids, and this is a heavily tracked generation—for safety's sake.

That extra peace of mind for adults comes with a heavy loss of privacy for kids. Do you agree with David Clouter, a parent and founder of the children's advocacy group Leave Them Kids Alone, who says taking all these precautions has the effect of treating kids like criminals? Or do you agree with the parents who have OKed the pilot program who do not find it egregiously intrusive?

One possible side effect: Uniform sales may pick up as kids try to procure extra non-RFID-tagged clothing. As security expert Bruce Schneier writes on his blog: "So now it's easy to cut class; just ask someone to carry your shirt around the building while you're elsewhere."

LINK: U.K. Kids Get RFID Chips in School Uniforms [Information Week]

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  • 46 Posted by watabitch on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:40PM EDT Report Abuse

    Children like most people rise or fall to expectations if we treat them like criminals who can't be trusted then that is exactly what we create. All loving parents want to lock thier children away in somewhere safe where the horrors of the world can't touch them, good parents relize this is not possible and instead focus on giving thier children the tools to face that world on thier own.

  • 47 Posted by shelby_m_hensley on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:18PM EDT Report Abuse

    ah geez- before long they'll require everyone to be microchipped at birth.

  • 48 Posted by rickit58 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:40PM EDT Report Abuse

    Easy to defeat. Just take off all your clothes and skip school naked. ;) Or, spend three minutes with a pair of scissors.

  • 49 Posted by merrymacb1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:16PM EDT Report Abuse

    Wow - BIG BROTHER. They'll be tracking you soon!!

  • 50 Posted by darkvengance388 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:36PM EDT Report Abuse

    This is so stupid. I'm a teen and I know its possible to get caught cutting class with our current system. We don't even wear uniforms at my school. If a kid really wanted to be left alone, they'd just change thier clothes. This system will fail! Another thing, younger people like their freedom. Do you think its wise to make them feel like they have a good reason to rebel? We have to learn how to be independant. Following us around with trackers won't help anyone.

  • 51 Posted by jasonsawyer442 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:29PM EDT Report Abuse

    that is ----- against the laws... invation of priacy... go for it.... only will give people a way to track kids down and who knows what the perverts will do... GRATE IDEA....! if they try that when my kids get into highschool... I will sue!!! big time lawsuit!

  • 52 Posted by jclion21 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:30PM EDT Report Abuse

    Well, they are already tracking our cars and in UK they have a section in a city that is covered in survaliance cameras. I think they read 1984 and thought that was a good idea!

  • 53 Posted by cmthieleman on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:27PM EDT Report Abuse

    I do not understand why everyone thinks this is so bad. They are children.. they shouldn't be running around the cities on their own anyway. If your child was abducted, I imagine you would regret not having some type of device to track your little one down. It isn't like they are saying to put cameras in the bathrooms! ...and I don't even have kids yet to worry about.

  • 55 Posted by wadedm on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:38PM EDT Report Abuse

    Tracking in this way is dumb - kids always find ways around systems and rules. It's part of being a kid. This comes into a trust issue more than a safety issue. Are that many kids being kidnapped in UK? What is next - are they going to implant them in the head or hand?

  • 56 Posted by jbaysurfer on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:30PM EDT Report Abuse

    agrampa, seeing as how you want to use a proven work of fiction to prove a point, I'll just say this. It IS happening, read Orwells' 1984. Mix your reading up for a change, or are you afraid of learning something new?

  • 57 Posted by bruxell on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:14PM EDT Report Abuse

    This, in my opinion, almost constitutes abuse, and certainly constitutse paranoia! Treating children like criminals, will only lead to adults who think like criminals. It's a viscious cycle that will only end when people admit that they cannot be made completely safe...

  • 58 Posted by rowhousenine on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:53PM EDT Report Abuse

    It's funny how everyone posting a comment never mentioned the fact that more and more children are being abducted each year only to be killed or never found if they are alive. How do we stop that from happening? Does anyone have a better idea? It helps more than it hurts in my opinion. Kids need thier privacy also, but what about safety and prevention from all of these perverts out here who do things to children?

  • 59 Posted by debonasimlap on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:40PM EDT Report Abuse

    I'm with agrampa2. I can't believe people don't see where this is going.

  • 60 Posted by casandrakumsung on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:19PM EDT Report Abuse

    A little RF pulse and you fry the chip. That is just one way to disable it even if it is implanted in your skin. For about $20 you can build a tracer of these chips so you can find it then take it out with a scalpel. Lead will shield it and so will any metal around it like aluminum foil.

  • 61 Posted by cjkbf on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:26PM EDT Report Abuse

    Sounds a little big brother, 1984ish, right?! I hear the antichrist in the background, don't you???

  • 62 Posted by johnkrug2001 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:39PM EDT Report Abuse

    To Henryvalz: Is there anything that isn't Bush's fault. Aren't we talking about tracking in Britain? By the government, not parents?

  • 63 Posted by katiedidcutie on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:47PM EDT Report Abuse

    either way they do it I'm pretty sure that they will find a way to get rid of it. kids are more rebellious these days so why waste money on something that they will find a way out of?

  • 64 Posted by film9944 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:59PM EDT Report Abuse

    Track who? Kids? For what? So teacher child-molesters can find them and molest them?

  • 65 Posted by desmechmn on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:41PM EDT Report Abuse

    Hey, they just gone to far! One thing being safe and a whole other thing being caged animal... If you have to watch kids that much, keep them home with the parents. For SHAME

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