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Japanese Schoolchildren to be Tagged with RFID
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."
I think you'd find that the most likely second target for a scheme like this would be (convicted) criminals, not employees.
(IIRC Most crimes are committed by repeat offenders)
First our pets and cattle, then our children, then criminals, then the rest of us.
A while ago, after reading a newspaper article about some hideous unsolved crime, I mentioned to a friend that we should start putting radiotags on criminals. Man, he hit the roof! Wow. He used a variety of terms to describe this idea, the one that I remember most was 'Nazi'.
Radio tagging people has its merits and can certainly make the world a 'Better Place'(tm), but it is simply too prone to abuse/misuse.
Who would you trust to manage and control the monitoring system? Your government? The United Nations? Your local police department? Your favourite church/religion/cult/sect?
One of the (many) unintended consequences of this will be that parents and authorities will have a higher perceived confidence level but a lower real confidence level.
Current situation: Parent sends child to school. Did they get there? Probably, based on past behavior and other factors, but not necessarily definitely. Therefore, the parents continue to assert controls and recieve feedback (aka nagging and snooping) over time to increase the liklihood of the child going to school and behaving safely.
Proposed situation: Parent sends child to school. Did they get there? Definitely, based on the feedback from the sensors at the school. Parents don't need to check and reinforce behavior (spy and nag), because they can be sure that their little darling is safe at school. Except that only the tag is at school, in their little darling's friend's bag. Little darling is skipping school and is currenly at a bukkake shoot earning some extra coin.
I'll stick with the nagging and snooping.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
As a Daddy of two, I think always being able to find my children is great. However, exactly how do you put these RFID tags on to our kids? A bracelet? An anklet? Those can easily be taken off buy the kids as well as by the kidnapper. Should we inject our kids with RFID tags? I dont' know. That seems a little far for me, though the though of loosing my little girl does make it seem like an "OK" idea. It is a tough choice for a parent.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
There was this Japanese kid in my baseball team (in Australia), and one game he was a no-show. When we caught up with him later (this is before mobiles and such), it seems he went to the specific park where we were playing, however as there were another three or four games concurrently underway (we're talking a pretty big park), not only could he not locate his team mates, but that it was doubly hard as we all looked the same.
I can't remember how he replied when I asked about the different uniforms.
It might be a cheap shot, but the parent argument was just another "Think of the children!" non-argument. OK, so it's his child, but there's no analysis there - only raw emotional respone.
:) RFID on the kids is the thin end. The first straw - well, your pets were the first straw. What's next? Repeat offenders? Known dissidents? Radical thinkers? One of these labels might apply to you some day.
:)
:)
Thing is, when it comes to peoples' kids I'm pretty cold. I just don't care about them and it grates my raw nerves when they affect my life (I gotta pay for HBO just to hear a comic say "Fuck" - Doug Stanhope...) I gotta stop quoting that guy
There's also incredible hypocrisy in most parents. They underestimate their children - lie to them to "protect" them. Then what? The kids find out the truth (Wow. I smoked pot and I didn't end up a crackhead. Conformity is bullshit. Fitting in is for dicks - you know, the same shit we all discovered in our teens) and they say "Fuck you, Mom. Fuck you Dad. You're just full of shit." Almost all of them do. A secret RFID tag would be the icing on the deception cake - knives and guns time! Good thing my folks were a little more liberal than my friends' - I'm maladjusted AND uninhibited!
Thing is, I hear people say "Hey, it'd be different if it was your kid. You're not a parent, how could you know?" Well, guess what folks - I think we've got enough mewling brats fucking up the planet already so I'm not planning to cumshot my way into ruining my life just yet. I guess I'll never know the joy of opressing, lying to and generally messing up a little version of me. What a fucking tragedy. Then again, I could have a few kids, stick RFID on them and race them around the block, watching the little coloured dots make their way around the map on my computer monitor. "Come on green! I bet a 20 on you!"
My girlfriend is on the pill, but I still wear a rubber - and only because she keeps talking me out of that vasectomy for some reason.
Now, there it is - my unreasoned emotionally loaded argument... How does it match up to "Think of the children"?