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Japanese Schoolchildren to be Tagged with RFID

Posted by timothy on from the hey-those-things-are-out-of-season dept.

oostevo writes "CNET has reported that Japanese schoolchildren in the city of Osaka will be tagged with RFID tags. Apparently this is in addition to the trial program in Tabe that The Register reported earlier, where parents can track their children on their way to school."

8 of 684 comments (clear)

  1. progress by rd4tech · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The tags will be read by readers installed in school gates and other key locations to track the kids' movements.

    /tinfoil_hat_on

    In 2 years replace the word 'kids' with 'employees'.
    In 5 years replace the word 'employers' with 'shoppers'.
    in 9 years replace the word 'shoppers' with...

    /tinfoil_hat_stays_on

    1. Re:progress by EtherAlchemist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If your workplace requires you to swipe or wave a little card to allow you to enter or exit areas of the building, you are already being tracked. Those systems report your movement in real-time as you move through those swipe points. At my place of work, it is accompanied on a monitor at the reception and security desk by the picture of the employee (the same appearing on the card).

      Shoppers will come before full-time, real-time employee tracking- more monetary value than employees and probably sooner than 2 years.

      I would be surprised, however, if in 9 years students here are being tracked. I think America's parents are too paranoid to stand for this. I personally have no problem with it, schools in my kids' district are repsonsible (by law, no less) for their whereabouts to and from school. I'd actually find peace of mind in RFID tracking, more so in GPS. Kidnappers and such aren't going to hunt for what they can already see, it's not like some asshole is going to sit in a van looking for GPS or RFID signals when he can look out his window (hey, big news break- kids can be found near schools).

      But a school, however, isn't lurking in a car somewhere watching your kids and they're the ones who SHOULD know where their students are, right? If a signal is reported outside of school during hours or worse, if it goes dead, they would know right away and could take immediate action in finding out why the child is not in school.

      --
      R(k)
    2. Re:progress by Grym · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ...though the though of loosing my little girl does make it seem like an "OK" idea. It is a tough choice for a parent.

      Which is exactly why all restrictions on freedoms have and always will start there. THINK OF THE CHILDREN! It's an emotional device that gets people do what they otherwise wouldn't, but it sets a precedent that can't be taken back.

      As of right now, high-school students do not have the right to free speech or privacy. For example, a student cannot write anything in the school paper that goes against the school administration's views, and any student's locker can be searched at any time without warning. And while this may, admittedly, help prevent embarrassments for the school system or drugs in schools, what sense of civil rights does this instill in them?

      Similarly, if they schools RFID tagging every student, imagine how much easier it will be to get those same people in twenty years to accept a nationalized RFID card/implant.

      -Grym

    3. Re:progress by fuzzix · · Score: 5, Insightful
      I wouldn't be opposed to a chip on a tooth, or a bracelet that required a key

      Don't be surprised if your son suddenly picks up some amateur dentistry and develops a strong distrust of you if you allow this to happen.

      Guess what... I am willing to bet nobody here has a chip in their tooth (unless that charlatan Kevin Warwick is reading) but we're all here! We all made it!

      Guess what... no amount of embedded chips is going to stop a determined individual doing what he thinks is a good idea. Thing is, the attacker might also have a touch of the amateur dentist in him, so the attack could be all the more devastating.

      How about, instead of tracking your son, how about some parenting? Keep an eye on him, you know? The sort of thing this species has been at for more years than historically recorded, you know?
  2. Stalkers by whfsdude · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What happens when someone else besides the school is able to access them? I can view my whole school district's security cams and people think that is a privacy issue.

    What is going to happen when someone is able to track these kids and it isn't the school?

  3. Re:People may complain but.. by jeffkjo1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    .. if it saves one kid, then it's worth it...

    This argument is such a fallacy. Why don't we encase our children in 'Nerf'? After all, then they would just bounce off of cars when they run out in the street.

    If it saved one child, it's worth it right?

  4. Stopping Abduction? by 1337+Twinkie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know a lot of people here think this can fight abduction. But how? Would a kidnapper really care whether or not the kid has a tag? If the sensors were placed EVERYWHERE, maybe they could track a missing child, but the abductor would certainly not stick around school with a tagged (or any) kid. I could see this as a potential means to fight truency, but not abduction.

  5. Re:Makes sense for Japanese parents by drsmithy · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Parent's violation of my privacy problem solved.

    Children don't have a "right" to privacy. Their parents may choose to respect their children's privacy if they believe them to be mature enough (and most aren't, even once they are legal adults - although it's often not as much of the parents' business after that).