| XXIII. | Human Microchip Implants: Evaluation: Children |
| Posted: February 6, 2004 |
| A. | CNN's Larry King Live!: John Walsh, Host of America's Most Wanted (Fox): Implantable GPS Microchips: "It's a brilliant idea": March 4, 2002 |
| John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted (Fox), on March 4, 2002, provided a positive evaluation of implantable GPS microchips on CNN's Larry King Live! |
| The subject of implantable microchips with GPS location capabilities was discussed on March 4, 2002, on CNN's Larry King Live! John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted (Fox), was asked by a caller from Tampa, Florida, about the potential for using implanted GPS as protection against kidnapping. Mr. Walsh replied: |
| "It's a brilliant idea. I wish someone would develop it because, No. 1, time is crucial when a child is missing and you could locate them by the chip. And even if you weren't lucky enough to locate them, finding the body is crucial for two things: the ending of the search of the parents and helping with the prosecution of the case. So I hope that somebody develops that in my lifetime."384 |
| B. | Evaluative Response to Planned Microchip Implants in Children: BBC News: September 2, 2002 |
| BBC News reported evaluative responses to Reading University academic Kevin Warwick's plans to implant tracking microchips in children. |
| Parents afraid that their daughters could be abducted are asking a British scientist to implant a tracking microchip under their skin, so that they can be found quickly. |
| Cybernetics expert Kevin Warwick said he had received requests for the procedure from "a number of families" following the deaths of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. |
| One girl, 11-year-old Danielle Duval, will have a device implanted in her arm sometime during the next few months... |
| He said it was up to society to decide if the procedure was ethical and whether parents, the police or a judge would have the power to activate the microchip. |
| "There are of course many more questions to be asked and I suspect there will be objections to an implant," he said... |
| "But if the general trend in Britain is in favour of such an operation it will be ready to go by Christmas"... |
| Danielle Duval's mother, Wendy, decided to let her daughter be a guinea pig for the project following the discovery of the bodies of Holly and Jessica, from Soham in Cambridgeshire. |
| Former school caretaker Ian Huntley, 28, has been charged with their murder and his girlfriend, Maxine Carr, 25, with attempting to pervert the course of justice. |
| Mrs Duval, from Reading in Berkshire, said: "I think it's just to make sure your children are safe. |
| "It's a shame you have to go to these lengths to keep your children safe but I would rather do that than have anything happen to her." |
| She compared the device to the tracking systems fitted to cars and said many of her friends were interested in protecting their children, including boys, in the same way. |
| Danielle also said she was happy to have the tag fitted. |
| "I'll feel so much safer - I'll know my mum knows where I am," she said... |
| Commenting on the Duval's decision he said: "I think they were looking for piece of mind that if anything did happen to Danielle that within a few minutes we would be able to locate them"... |
| His latest project was attacked by children's charity Kidscape. |
| A spokesman told The Guardian newspaper: "We do not think this is a good idea. |
| "Children should be taught about the possible dangers, rather than having something stuck on them that can maybe track them, and perhaps then only when it's too late."385 |
| C. | Kidscape: Microchip Implant "A Step towards Big Brother": England: The Reading Evening Post: September 3, 2002 |
| One children's safety campaigners organization connected an implantable microchip that will be used to trace a child's microchip readings on a computer map, with the idea of Big Brother. |
| A Reading youngster is to be microchipped in a hi-tech bid to thwart perverts and kidnappers. |
| Danielle Duval, 11, will have the chip implanted in her arm so she can be traced by computer if she is ever snatched... |
| Mrs Duval added that the family, and Danielle, would be reassured she could be found using the chip — which emits radio waves through mobile phone technology — if there were an emergency. |
| It has been designed by University of Reading cybernetics expert Professor Kevin Warwick... |
| Prof Warwick said Danielle's microchip readings would be traced on a computer map to locate her... |
| However, the scheme worried children's safety campaigners Kidscape who felt it was a step towards Big Brother. |
| Project co-ordinator Megan Burns said: "We completely understand the concern of all parents, particularly in the light of what happened to Holly and Jessica, but we do not feel it is the way forward. |
| "We are always sceptical when things like this are released after a tragic event like this." |
| Ms Burns said the microchip should not be seen as a replacement for teaching children about stranger-danger. |
| The best use would be for children with severe special needs, she said.386 |
| D. | Child Abductions Rare; Abuse Within Home: England: The Guardian: September 3, 2002 |
| A response by a spokesman for the NSPCC [National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children] to plans for implanting tracking microchips in children observes that the greatest abuse of children occurs within the home. |
| A spokesman for the NSPCC said: "Parents and guardians must remember child abductions are extremely rare, and that the vast majority of abuse happens within the home."387 |
| E. | "Would You Microchip Your Child?": England: The Guardian: September 4, 2002 |
| Sally Weale interviewed seven persons, including two children and three persons identified, in part, as mothers. Following are excerpts from the article for three of the seven. |
| 1. | Professor Kevin Warwick |
| Professor Kevin Warwick is "Reading University's cybernetics department and designer of the tracker microchip." |
| We are going to get people saying it won't work, but we are confident it will and time will prove that. Whether we should or should not do it, these are the important issues that should be raised. The technology is not much of an infringement on the individual. A lot of children have their ears pierced and different body piercings. This does not amount to much more than that. And if it saves just one life, then it would be worth it. |
| There are a lot of scared parents and children out there. Since this story appeared, the phone has gone berserk. I have had hundreds of calls. We hope they will never have need to use it, but it can give parents some peace of mind... |
| I don't think it is anything that should be forced on people, but the option should be there. |
| 2. | Mary MacLeod |
| Mary MacLeod is "Chief executive of the National Family and Parenting Institute." |
| Knowing where a child is does not mean that child is safe. Statistically, children are more likely to be harmed by someone they know, rather than by a stranger, so chipping them does not guarantee you will be able to keep your child safe. |
| We are seriously concerned and believe that parents need to think very hard before using this invasive procedure to deal with a risk - appalling as it is - which is still very small. While parents' anxieties are understandable, and we know that children are anxious too, a lot of this has to do with the constant media coverage. |
| It is very important to reassure children how very, very rare this kind of event is. We feel that this sort of procedure would be an extreme response to this anxiety. |
| 3. | Pauline Nolan |
| Pauline Nolan is the "Mother of 15-year-old Dan who went missing on January 1 this year after going fishing with friends in Hamble, near Southampton." |
| I saw the tracker implant on television on Monday night and thought it was a fantastic idea. I wish Dan had had a chip on him, because the chances are we would know where he was now... |
| I saw the tracker implant on television on Monday night and thought it was a fantastic idea. I wish Dan had had a chip on him, because the chances are we would know where he was now... |
| What makes me angry is when you hear parenting experts and child protection people on television — it happened after Soham — saying abduction is extremely rare. But there are just so few cases that get national media coverage — people are unaware that it's happening as often as it does. As many as 220 under-18s go missing on a daily basis, 70% of those come back home within 72 hours, but that still leaves 60 children unaccounted for every day. Those children are vulnerable out there and they need to be found.388 |
| F. | Ruthless Kidnappers: Unintended Consequences of Human Microchip Implants Considered: England: The Register: September 9, 2002 |
| An article in The Register by John Lettice considers "the effect widespread chipping is likely to have on ruthless kidnappers." |
| Thanks, incidentally, to all of those readers who wrote in with suggestions, pointers and comments. One common thought we think worth considering is the effect widespread chipping is likely to have on ruthless kidnappers; the less evident such devices are, the more exploratory surgery they're likely to do. Even the Whereify [Wherify] system (an example of a GPS-wireless combo with the same objective as [Professor Kevin] Warwick's device) could be vulnerable to this. Yes, it's a bracelet, but oh dear, parents can lock it on. Such parents should make sure their kids carry bolt-cutters, or only get kidnapped by kidnappers who own some. We note from the BBS at www.kevinwarwick.com that LRAM of Columbia says "In Colombia we have 3500 Kidnapping each year We are interesting in your implantable tracking device for security aplications, please send an e-mail to me in other to be more closer to your develope. We have the 65% of the kidnapping in the world. Please help us!" We shudder to think what the FARC's idea of exploratory surgery might be.389 |
| G. | "Tagging Children Will Not Protect Them, Say Experts": England: The Observer: September 8, 2002 |
| The Observer reported contrasting views of tracking children electronically, whether via an external GPS-enabled watch, or via an implanted locator. |
| Proposals to tag children in Britain electronically could result in increased numbers of boys and girls losing their lives and cause major psychological problems for thousands of others, British scientists warn. |
| They say that rare tragedies such as those involving Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells do not justify hi-tech responses, which only exploit parents' fears. |
| Moves to introduce child trackers are gaining momentum... |
| Reading University scientist Kevin Warwick is also trying to develop a locator that would be implanted into children. |
| 'The technology is not much of an infringement,' he said. 'Children have their ears and bodies pierced. This does not amount to much more than that. And if it saves just one life, it would be worth it'... |
| His [Timothy Neher, head of Wherify] locator - which costs $400, plus a monthly service charge - consists of a wristwatch receiver that picks up signals from global positioning satellites. The wearer's location is automatically transmitted via cellphones to a central receiver. Parents can then look at a website to see their children's location. The locator wristwatch can be locked on to a child's wrist and is fitted with a panic button so that he or she can alert parents and police if danger arises. |
| The company says it has already sold thousands of devices over the last two months, with delivery beginning this week. Their popularity is not an American phenomenon: a survey carried out by nVision, the online database of the British think tank Future Foundation, has revealed that 75 per cent of British parents would like such a device. |
| Experts contacted by The Observer were horrified. They pointed out that, of the few murders that occur each year, all but a small fraction are caused by individuals known to the child's family. |
| 'This is an absolutely disgusting idea,' said Professor Colin Pritchard, of Southampton University's psychiatric social work department. 'This will cost lives, not save them.' Professor William Yule, of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, agreed. 'This sort of thing surely breaches the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.' |
| Elizabeth Mapstone, a child abuse expert, said: 'Tagging children is entirely futile. It's an extreme response and it distracts attention from the real danger.'390 |
| H. | "Surgical Tags Plan for Sex Offenders: Silicon Chip To Be Inserted under Skin": "Civil Liberties Groups Expressed Horror; Phoenix Survivors Spokeswoman...Said...You Have to Know What They Are Doing All the Time": The Observer: November 17, 2002 |
| Martin Bright, home affairs editor of The Observer, wrote that Britain is considering a plan to track sex offenders with surgically implanted "electronic tags." Civil rights groups and a survivors' group expressed differing evaluations of human chip implants. |
| Britain is considering a controversial scheme to implant surgically electronic tags in convicted paedophiles amid fears that the extent of the abuse of children has been massively underestimated... |
| A letter from Hilary Benn, the Minister responsible for the supervision of sex offenders in the community, reveals the Home Office's electronic monitoring team is already developing technology to track paedophiles constantly. The team is now investigating the 'implant tag' after it was alerted to its capabilities by a campaign group for victims of paedophiles... |
| In a letter to Labour MP Andrew Mackinley, Benn wrote: 'The Electronic Monitoring Team is... looking actively at the possibilities for using tracking technology to monitor offenders' whereabouts as they move from one place to another... |
| Ministers would need to pass new legislation to oblige offenders to be surgically fitted with the tags. |
| Civil liberties groups expressed horror at the proposals last night. 'Implanting tracking devices provides a very frightening vision for the future. We already know that the rules protecting our privacy are inadequate. Where would this stop?' said John Wadham, director of Liberty. 'This would be used initially for sex offenders, but we would soon find that other marginalised groups, such as asylum seekers, would find they were forced to have implants.' |
| The implant tag has been proposed by Phoenix Survivors, a group of child abuse victims who were traded as child prostitutes in the north-west of England. Their name is taken from Operation Phoenix, an investigation into the activities of 72-year-old Stanley Claridge. |
| Claridge's stepdaughter and Phoenix Survivors' spokeswoman Shy Keenan said: 'I am sick to death of it being acceptable that I am a victim because these people have to have their human rights. These people live outside the law and cannot be controlled, so you have to know what they are doing all the time.' |
| I. | John Wadham, Director of Liberty: "Where Will This End?" Prisonplanet.com: Sunday Times of London: November 17, 2002 |
| John Wadham serves as director of Liberty. Dominic Tonner writing in the November 17, 2002 Sunday Times of London noted Wadham's response to the article entitled, "Paedophiles May Be Fitted with Electronic Tags." |
| Electronic tracking devices could be implanted into convicted paedophiles under plans being considered by the government. |
| Microchips would be surgically fitted beneath the skin under local anaesthetic, enabling officials to follow abusers' movements and monitor their heart rate and blood pressure. |
| The tagging technology is similar to that used to locate stolen cars. It works by using satellites or a mobile phone network to pinpoint the person on an electronic map via a signal from the implant... |
| Tracker Network, the company that runs Britain's largest stolen vehicle monitoring system, has been approached about paedophile monitoring and an American company has reportedly been asked to develop the software. Similar software that remotely monitors the bodily functions of astronauts has already been developed for Nasa. |
| In the US, the microchip maker Applied Digital Solutions says it has been inundated by demands to produce electronic implants that can be used to keep tabs on kidnap victims via satellite... |
| The Home Office minister Hilary Benn revealed the government's plan to implant electronic tags into convicted paedophiles in a letter to the Labour MP Andrew Mackinlay. |
| "The (Home Office's) electronic monitoring team is . . . looking actively at the possibilities for using tracking technology to monitor offenders' whereabouts as they move from one place to another," he wrote. |
| New legislation would have to be passed to require offenders to be surgically fitted with the tags. |
| The plan has alarmed civil liberties campaigners. John Wadham, the director of Liberty, said he was concerned that the technology's application could be widened to cover other marginalised groups, such as asylum seekers. |
| "Where will this end? Liberty's 70-year history has shown that restrictions on human rights are first brought in to deal with the bad, the wicked and the marginalised, but, in the absence of proper regulations such as privacy laws, are almost always extended to include other categories (of people)," he said. |
| J. | "Kid-Chips: Parents, Activists Debate How Far We Should Go To Protect Children": Gannett News Service in Norwich Bulletin: November 18, 2002 |
| Mary Challender, Gannett News Service, reported on the debate over implanting tracking microchips in children. The debate is "over how far a parent -- or society -- should go in limiting personal freedoms in the interest of safety." Challender notes that, "It's a question that residents of the United States have been struggling with for a very different reason since Sept. 11," and that, "Answers are no easier to come by when our children rather than our country are threatened." Challender observes that, "To Paul and Wendy Duval, whose daughter, Danielle, is slated to become the first recipient of an implant, the chip makes about the same amount of common sense as a safety belt or a car seat." In a section entitled, "Big Brother," Challender continues her analysis. |
| Others view it as the trapdoor to an Orwellian society conveniently hidden behind a nation's fears for its children. |
| Just the concept of a microchip that can be used to keep tabs on a person's movements horrifies many. To Randall Wilson, legal director for the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, the microchip is a radical solution to the problem of child abduction. |
| It's not just a question of whether parents want to be able to track their children, he says. It's a question of whether parents also want the government to be able to track their children -- and by extension, themselves. |
| Every parent has a fear -- even terror -- of losing a child, Wilson says. What's important is for parents to balance that fear against the thought of raising their child in a world with very little personal freedom and no real expectation of freedom. |
| "We always take some risks and pay some costs to have freedom," he says. "I would rather probably use this on my pet than on my child"... |
| Many civil libertarians, child safety experts and even parents view the tracking microchip as a massive overreaction to a numerically small problem. |
| They cite statistics showing the number of children kidnapped by strangers has actually decreased. According to FBI statistics, the number of reported child abductions by strangers has dropped from 134 cases in 1999 to 93 in 2001. In the first half of this year, there were 46 child abductions reported nationally. |
| Statistics, though, are cold comfort to parents when a child can't be found... |