Japan school kids to be tagged with RFID chips

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Japanese authorities decide tracking is best way to protect kids
The rights and wrongs of using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on humans have been debated since the tracking tags reached the technological mainstream. Now, school authorities in the Japanese city of Osaka have decided the benefits outweigh the disadvantages and will now be chipping children in one primary school.

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

The chips will be put onto kids' schoolbags, name tags or clothing in one Wakayama prefecture school. Denmark's Legoland introduced a similar scheme last month to stop young children going astray.

RFID is more commonly found in supermarket and other retailers' supply chains, however, companies are now seeking more innovative ways to derive value from the tracking technology. Delta Air Lines recently announced it would be using RFID to track travelers' luggage.

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Source : http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5266700.html

WOW! That all I have to said!

Are the parents comfortable with that? I understand the concept behind it, but I'm not sure I would like that too much if it was one of my children.

If i had children and there school brought this into effect, i'd happily support it as at least you know that your young child is safe at school, with all the perverts around praying on young children at least if a child got led from the school ground the tag would alert the school about it, and before the child could get to far they would be easy to track down and brought back to the school..
I see it as an added Safety measure, and i would openly support this being used in any school.
And it would also be userful to help stop younger children leaving the school grounds and walking onto oncoming traffic, just think of all the things these devices could be programmed to do..

well theres my 2 cents on this subject

cheers big ears
.:f2b:.

Having a young child, and seeing the quality of supervision in some public schools, I think this could be a great idea. Kids tend to wander, and one teacher trying to watch 20 kids is badly outnumbered.

However, I would draw the line at attaching these tags to anything my child would wear/use out of school. I am confident in my own supervision abilities and would not want "Big Brother" to be able to track my child, and hence myself, outside of school hours. Rather the chips should be attached to something that the child would only use at school - perhaps an ID tag or bracelet of some sort....

:)

on the other hand, it would be great to have these outside of schools, because if someone was kidnapped, it is most likely the kidnapper wouldn't realize the kid had the tag until AFTER they got back to the hideout

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Originally posted here by djscribble
on the other hand, it would be great to have these outside of schools, because if someone was kidnapped, it is most likely the kidnapper wouldn't realize the kid had the tag until AFTER they got back to the hideout

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And who controls these systems? Do you want your government? The police? A company?

Edit: Interesting words for someone with "Trust no one" in their sig. ;)

Sounds great, but pretty soon the nude teen camp fad will reach Japan, and then, because no one wears name tags or book bags, they'll put chips in their brains, then the super mad robot engineers in Tokyo will create robots of the children, and will then program them to vote for Kerry, and then... :D

Really, this is a tad extreme. If you want to protect children, do it like in the old days. Teach them karate, so they can kick some molester ass.

I agree with CXGJarrod, who would you really trust with the knowledge of how long your child takes on the s***er!?! I wouldn't trust the government, I'm the guy who thinks the questions on the census are ridiculus. :)

the problem with this is that these kids will grow up thinking this is normal and will not object when everyone has to have them.

my second objection to such a program is the fact thats its manditory. if someone thinks their kids should be chiped...let them go out and have it done them selves like they'd lo-jack their car. why is is necessary to force everyones kids to have this? (see objection #1)

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the problem with this is that these kids will grow up thinking this is normal and will not object when everyone has to have them.

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... And that's how one starts down the slippery, slippery slope towards despotism :mad:

This kinda makes me think of Battle Royal. I was thinking of like neckbands and the like.

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the problem with this is that these kids will grow up thinking this is normal and will not object when everyone has to have them.

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Now that's one very good reason not to do this! I can see the slippery slope from here....

I haven't posted to this thread because I thought the answer would be self evident , since we live in a world where rapists, kidnappers, and murders are a constant thereat, and where the protection of our children is paramount. But, after Tebod1 posted a comment about the children becoming accustomed to this practice being a norm, I was forced to step back and reconsider this issue. I have to agree that tracking the children may cause a serious break down in future generations perception of what "freedom" is, and this concerns me greatly. Laws generated in response to 9/11 have curtailed our freedoms in some aspects, but not necessarily in a bad way IMHO. However, I'm still undecided on this tagging of children issue though. It comes down to protecting our children versus our children loosing their freedom in an uncontested an unbeknownst way to them, by changing the children's preception of acceptable reality. It will take more thought.

As for making the taging optional: That would never work. Why? If the taging was optional then the school system opens itself up to a lawsuit of magnimonious proportions when a child that doesn't have a tag runs away or is kidnapped. The parents of the missing child would argue in court that if the threat was important enough to warrant taging children, (as it obviously was because a non tagged child has ended up missing) then the taging should have been made mandatory to properly address the threat and thus preventing the loss of their child. I wonder if the US or State governments had the same issues with the use of seatbelts or booster seats before their use became mandatory?