Times Online: Safety fears over new register of all children
The database, which goes live next year, is to contain details of every one of the 11 million children in the country, listing their name, address and gender, as well as contact details for their GP, school and parents and other carers. The record will also include contacts with hospital consultants and other professionals, and could show whether the child has been the subject of a formal assessment on whether he or she needs extra help.
It will be available to an estimated 330,000 vetted users. Some of those allowed to check records, such as head teachers, doctors, youth offender and social workers, are uncontroversial, but critics have questioned why other potential users, such as fire and rescue staff, will have access to the database.
(via Tim W.)
Update: And then there’s this:
Concerns have been intensified by the admission that, while every child under 18 in England will have a record, ministers have allowed some children to be given extra protection. The “shielding†mechanism will mean that information on the offspring of some politicians and celebrities could be left off the main database.
Posted on August 27th, 2007 at 10:04am under Affronts to democracy, Chicken Nuggets, Science and progress
2010 is coming. All the databases have exemptions for the ruling elite and their offspring.
Like communism, its just for the masses.
http://thejournal.parker-joseph.co.uk/blog/_archives/2007/8/23/3177099.html
330,000 vetted users?
Aye right. How much vetting will they be able to do on 330,000 users?
And how good will the security be?
(Yes that is a rhetorical question: we all know the answer).
Thank God my kids are past the age for this police-state stuff – at least until they have to go to the interrogation centre to get their ID cards.
“The “shielding†mechanism will mean that information on the offspring of some politicians and celebrities could be left off the main database.” – The important.
As has been said before, everyone is born equal but some more equal than others.
Welcome to Animal Farm UK
This has a very nasty stench to it. I trust them not.
IanP’s concerns on his blog seem to very similar to those expressed in the recently late (last friday, of cancer) Aeron Russo’s (Trading Places; The Rose) film “America: Freedom to Facism” to be found here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173
The interviews are also interesting.
Some background info also at:
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm
and the late russo’s associated website for the film:
http://www.freedomtofascism.com/
Simple. Pre-empt the database, and register your child on YouTube instead.
A “hilarious” video of them squirting water at the cat, falling off a swing or playing Buckaroo with a sleeping relative at Christmas will turn them into instant celebrity, and they can qualify for the opt-out.
Very worrying indeed if this database comes to fruition.
I have to wonder – where is the actual benefit in this supposed to be? Nowhere in that Times piece is there any indication of what this is supposed to be for. There are any number of lists and databases that could be described in similar terms as this, but usually there is at least a justification to balance out the risks. Where is it in this case? Where even is the debate about whether the balance is a correct one?
I believe the intended benefit is that it will help aid communication in cases of ‘at risk’ children, to prevent further cases like that of Victoria Climbié (as per the Times article).
Which is of course bollocks. Databases don’t solve communication issues – process does. Just because I have access to a database containing employee details at work doesn’t mean I’ll ever call them.
We have so many databases already. If social services need better access to medical records, and doctors need better access to social services records, then look at that. Do we really need more?
information on the offspring of some politicians could be left off the main database
Nice to know that our lords and masters are not in the least hypocritical.
it’s a shame that the media only pick up on things when it’s too late to do anything about it. The ‘contactpoint’ database plans were announced in November 2003 and the regulations finally got through just before recess last month, in the teeth of a struggle that has been going on for 4 years.
What hasn’t got so much as a mention yet is the *other* national database that will be created alongside it – announced very quietly by Written Ministerial Statement the day before recess. Called the ‘eCAF’ database, it will hold the in-depth personal profiles of every child requiring services. Govt estimates this will be up to 50% of all children. No doubt it will be spotted in, ooh, 6 months time when the regulations are passed.