Japanese Schoolchildren to be Tagged with RFID 684
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."
Makes sense for Japanese parents (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Makes sense for Japanese parents (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Makes sense for Japanese parents (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Makes sense for Japanese parents (Score:5, Insightful)
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).
Re:Makes sense for Japanese parents (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't know; I've seen some parents whose invasion of their children's privacy goes so far as to be morally objectionable. Though I'm no philosopher, I'd suggest that there's a moral right of some kind, though its extent is definitely a matter for debate.
The law (in Japan or wherever) is a different matter, of course.
Re:Makes sense for Japanese parents (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Makes sense for Japanese parents (Score:5, Informative)
In all the countries of the world, except the United States of America and Somalia, they do.
Article 16 [unicef.org]
1. No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation.
Lets bask in your hate why don't we (Score:4, Informative)
That's funny, because there was nothing anti-american in my post. I simply named the 2 countries on earth who refused to ratify the declaration on the rights of children.
so, you're saying that kids of Iran, Iraq (two years ago), Afghanistan (3 years ago) Syria, and the like all have a right to privacy?
Yes, they had a right to it.
Maybe their rights were being violated...but they had rights.
Where's the UN on the Sudan? Rwanda?
When the genocides started in Rwanda in 1994, the U.N. tried to move in with a peacekeeping force, but the move was blocked by the U.S. because they didn't think the deathtoll of hundreds of thousands of africans was high enough to risk U.S. soldier casualties that might result from their participation.
Where's Unicef on female genital mutilation?
Here. [unicef.org]
Re:"Children don't have a "right" to privacy." (Score:5, Funny)
I can't do drugs any more - At my age I have shit to do. I can't go on a 2 day acid binge cos I have to move my car on street sweeping day. Drugs are for kids.
Paraphrased from a piece by the guy in my sig
Re:"Children don't have a "right" to privacy." (Score:4, Insightful)
The battle cry of the narrow-minded parent who can't possibly understand that someone else that has children might have a different opinion on how they should be raised.
There's being involved in your child's life and there's being so oppressive they have no choice but to rebel and rebel hard. One of the worst things you can do as a parent is to make your child believe you do not trust him at all.
Let me ask you this: If you treat your child as if he's a criminal, what incentive does he have to not be a criminal? If your home is already a prison, how effective is the threat of prison going to be? And furthermore, how is this complete lack of trust preparing him for life without you?
I would suggest that if you need to track your child's every movement when they are old enough to go places by themselves then you haven't done your job as a parent. Getting children to behave properly when you are with them is trivial. Getting them to behave properly when you aren't with them is what parenting is all about.
maybe.. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Makes sense for Japanese parents (Score:5, Funny)
Boy am I relieved that the first +5 funny in this comment didn't have anything to do with the "they all look alike" stereotype.
Re:Makes sense for Japanese parents (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Makes sense for Japanese parents (Score:5, Funny)
I wonder if you are both talking about quite the same thing......
Re:Makes sense for Japanese parents (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't remember how he replied when I asked about the different uniforms.
Re:Makes sense for Japanese parents (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Makes sense for Japanese parents (Score:4, Funny)
Don't be ridiculous.
Follow the money and the conclusion is clear: Japanese schoolchildren are about go to on sale at Walmart.
progress (Score:5, Insightful)
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...
Re:progress (Score:5, Funny)
Only one will survive.
Re:progress (Score:5, Informative)
Battle Royale [imdb.com]
The basic plot is this... students have rebelled against the government and "adults", so the govt invoked the battle royale act. Each year, one class of year 9 school students is shipped to a remote island and told that they have to kill each other off. They're all 'tagged' with exploding necklaces that also function as tracking devices for those monitoring the "game". If any more than a single student remains alive after the final (third) day, all the necklaces explode...
It comes down to whether you could kill your own friends...
Re:progress (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:progress (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:progress (Score:4, Insightful)
Definately not. I am certain any kid that has that done will end up resenting their parents when they are older for violating them like that.
Heck, if it weren't for all the "normalcy" society places on it, circumcision would be a cause for resentment of one's parents, too.
At least an anklet can be taken off without leaving any permanent reminders.
Re:progress (Score:5, Insightful)
Sometimes I swear we are just asking for it.
Re:progress (Score:5, Insightful)
That means you'll have to do your parenting the hard way. You know, like the countless generations before you did...
do you have kids? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:progress (Score:5, Insightful)
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
Re:progress (Score:5, Insightful)
Freedom of speech and privacy does not mean you have to fund the people embarrassing you. If you want to write things about your school, produce your own newspaper.
As far as RFIDs go, I don't like them, but I can see them as an outgrowth of modern trends - at least in Australia. More and more responsibility is being placed on those looking after children, and less and less authority is given. A school here was successfully sued by the parents of two children who truanted, and where injured in the course of having a rock fight. At the same time, schools are prohibited from and corporal punishment, or removing children from their peers ("timeouts") in case they alienate them from their friends.
I don't know the conditions in the states, nor in Japan, but based on things going on here, all I can say is "more power to them". People who demand other people take responsibility for their own stupid actions deserve whatever they get. Grow up, take responsibility for yourself, and don't blame the school if your kid is a dick.
Re:progress (Score:4, Insightful)
Gee and I wonder where the school resources and funds come from? Besides that, isn't the purpose of a school newspaper to teach up-and-coming journalist and writers how the system works and to peak their interests? What system is it they're being taught when these things are censored? Not journalism - they're being taught politics. You might even be able to correlate this type of restrictive approach to the education system's publications to acceptance of censorship that occurs in American news media today.
Parents should be taught that if they have a problem with something published in the newspaper, they should write in an editorial, NOT tell the administration to squelch it. That's how you respond to someone saying something you don't agree with.
Re:progress (Score:5, Insightful)
All systems are open to abuse. What happens when J. Random Paedophile hacks the system and can use it to choose a victim?
One day Little Girl will become Mature Woman. Will she appreciate having a RFID tag then? 99.9% of people probably will, because of social conditioning. But what happens when J. Random Rapist or Stalker hacks the system and uses it to choose a victim?
Severe legal penalties already do not stop these people. Why would simply knowing someone's whereabouts stop them? At least we'll know where to go to find the body after the event.
Re:progress (Score:4, Insightful)
No, but if the potential victim is in isolation, say has wandered off to some secluded spot, and the criminal is using the tracking system, he now has a prime candidate for attack! Someone to abuse and no witnesses. What's the alternative? Security cameras absolutely everywhere being constantly monitored, or police officers everywhere rounding up people who stray from "approved" areas as soon as they deviate? Could you imagine a situation where you walk out of a "monotored area" and within 30 seconds a team of armed police decend and bundle you away back to somewhere "safe" and give you a lecture about "safety and responsibility?"
Re:progress (Score:3, Interesting)
~D
Re:progress (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
Re:progress (Score:3, Insightful)
It's easy for us non-parents to throw around trite advice that all it takes is better parenting (although with two teachers in my family, I think the world really could do with better parenting).
Even the best parents though, are not infalible. Sure, all us reading Slashdot now made it, but some people didn't. I live in a block of flats, and I'd just come home this weekend when I heard a child calling out for their Mummy. So I went to see what was happening. One of the neighbours kids was by the entrance,
Re:progress (Score:5, Interesting)
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"?
Re:progress, but not as we know it (Score:5, Interesting)
(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?
Re:progress, but not as we know it (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:progress, but not as we know it (Score:5, Funny)
The military.
Re:progress, but not as we know it (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, the criminals will have a field day - once they can wand you to verify your ID, people might just stop looking at photo IDs (which are easy enough to fake an
Re:progress (Score:5, Funny)
You know those Japanese kids (Score:5, Funny)
With all due respect (Score:5, Funny)
Try it out.
Re:With all due respect (Score:3, Funny)
Hey you're right!
Oh yeah? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh yeah? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:With all due respect (Score:5, Funny)
Re:With all due respect (Score:3, Funny)
Hey, from a US perspective that even makes sense!
Denmark? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:With all due respect (Score:5, Funny)
In Japan!
Re:With all due respect (Score:3, Informative)
I know some flamebaiter below you already mentioned this typo, but it's kind of funny in the context of the story.
As bad as it seems, as a parent I can understand (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd tell 'em they have it when they're old enough to understand. And if they don't like, when they're old enough they can take it out themselves.
Seems like a good diea (Score:5, Funny)
Re:As bad as it seems, as a parent I can understan (Score:5, Insightful)
The odds of being kidnapped (in general, of course if your area has higher stats, then my arguments change) are so low that this sort of thing doesn't do a lot of good. The odds are very high, however, of RFID tags being used for undesirable purposes (unless RFID is well-regulated with regards to privacy, which seems unlikely at this point).
We have:
1. A dubious benefit.
2. A certain detriment.
In complete seriousness, if my parents had tagged me in this way, I'd be very upset with them. I could forgive ignorance on their part (them being fed the line that this is a good thing, and that there are no drawbacks). I could *not* forgive them if they did this with full knowledge (not that I'd disown them or something, just that there would always be this one issue that, regardless of how good our relationship is, I could not forgive).
Now, in Japan the culture is quite different. This doesn't strike me as being too terribly unacceptable there.
Re:As bad as it seems, as a parent I can understan (Score:3, Funny)
Re:As bad as it seems, as a parent I can understan (Score:4, Insightful)
But it wouldn't. An RFID detector would be easy enough to buy or manufacture from parts you could get at Radioshack. If the tag is injected under the skin you'd use the detector to locate it, then cut it out.
Remember, it's not as if the kidnapper is at all concerned with the welfare of the child. Cutting out a small hunk of flesh isn't going to bother them. And a canny kidnapper would do something interesting with that hunk of flesh - like tape it to the underside of someone else's car so the police would waste time trying to locate and storm(trooper) the house of some innocent.
There is no upside to tagging kids in the crime prevention department. The only use that such a system has is to track the child itself, for the benefit of the parents (in terms of control) or the government (also in terms of control).
Max
People may complain but.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Or just think about yourself trying to explain how you don't want to see this because it violates privacy to a parent whose child is missing/abducted..
Re:People may complain but.. (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
Re:People may complain but.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:People may complain but.. (Score:5, Funny)
If it saved one child, it's worth it right?
That would be worth it for the entertainment value alone.
Re:People may complain but.. (Score:5, Funny)
Because that would ENCOURAGE kids to run out into the street so they could be hit by cars.
Re:People may complain but.. (Score:3, Funny)
It tracks them (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a tad different (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, kids are under adult attention a lot of the time. Still, I cannot dismiss this as just a "more efficient method" as you do. Is torture just a more efficient method of interrogation? Efficiency is not a justifying dictum, just a bonus.
That's your choice. Me, I do care. I'm not a totally paranoid tinfoil-hatter, but I have purposely avoided owning a cellphone and intend to continue doing so until it becomes an absolute necessity (if it does). And even then, I doubt I'll keep it with me all the time, much less on. I don't want to be reachable or trackable 24/7, that's not human nature, or at least not my nature.
Re:People may complain but.. (Score:3, Insightful)
What if an innocent is criminally indicted based soley on their RFID tag due to a technological error or fraudulent RFID tag.
Oh wait, but the courts are perfect and no one would..
Seriously, "If it saves one child" could easily be changed to "If it indictes one innocent". I think that would require a rewrite of the last part of that statement, though they both apply.
Certainly the article doesn't state that the RFID tags are REQUIRED, but if they are optional consider this
It's called "reducto ad absurdum" (Score:4, Informative)
Re:It's called "reducto ad absurdum" (Score:3, Funny)
Re:People may complain but.. (Score:5, Insightful)
You wouldn't mind that, would you?
Re:People may complain but.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Our chief weapon is Plato (Score:3, Funny)
NOBODY expects the Third Man Argument [google.com].
Re:People may complain but.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Human society has a nasty tendancy to slip from what may be a clear defined goal (Keep kids safe by tracking them) towards something that's similar where the logic matches fairly close (Keep people safe by tracking them). However, at the same time, you run a higher risk of abuse of such information. While this is something of a straw man argument, consider what the Holocaust would've been like if the leaders of the country could find every member of the Jewish community, hiding or not, because they were wearing tags?
Personally, I'd almost rather teach my children self defense and how to handle unknowns in the world, than to rely on a removable tracking tag for their "safety". They'll be better off for knowing that.
Re:People may complain but.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Besides, if the school mandates it, it has to pay for it. Have the school get the RFID readers installed at choke points, and make it voluntary for parents. That way:
1) Parents feel they take a meaningful step to protect their kids
2) Parents who don't believe in RFID don't have to fight the system just because you think you're better than them.
3) Parents who refused the RFID can't blame the school for their refusal.
Why is it that whenever something "better" comes along, it has to be Mandatory?
Better things should be voluntary, that way we can all become better human beings by making enlightened choices.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:People may complain but.. (Score:5, Informative)
Media attention to the contrary, kidnapping isn't that common, and when it does occur it's usually done by a parent or relative. The introduction of Amber Alert programs has greatly increased media coverage of kidnappings; an unfortunate side effect of this is a mistaken perception that kidnappings are common and increasing occurrances.
Banning school athletics programs would save far more children's lives. So would banning automobiles, eliminating all foods that include potential allergens, and placing all children in gated institutions until 18, just to think of a few examples.
Maybe things are different where you live, but everywhere I've been, children who are prevented from learning how to handle risk tend towards one of two extremes. Either they react by doing incredibly stupid things (unprotected sex, reckless driving, etc.) and tend to get hurt, or they have no idea how to handle adult risks and responsibilities once they grow up and are no longer safely ensconced in bubble wrap.
I do realize that when people have children, the genetic imperative hijacks behaviour to varying degree. Maybe this made sense back when society was simpler, risks more easily understood and addressed, and the capacity for smothering and control limited. That does not make it a rational or effective strategy for raising children to be functional adults in today's society.
Patrick Henry did not learn the courage to utter "give me liberty or give me death" by being raised by parents whose mantras were "think of the children" and "if it saves just one child...".
glaring flaw (Score:5, Insightful)
Now if parents want to know if their kid is down at the pachinko parlour or some such
Stalkers (Score:5, Insightful)
What is going to happen when someone is able to track these kids and it isn't the school?
Re:Stalkers (Score:3, Insightful)
Imagine an RFID reader that could tell when children were alone and let a whacko sort children from a distance.
It's an other instance of an _item_ being used to replace an _understanding_. Children should be taught to careful not cared for till they have no choices.
I can just imagine the kid at the back of the room with a bag full of RFID chips while his friends play hooky.
Not the worst idea (Score:3, Insightful)
Battle Royale (Score:5, Funny)
But Where's the Danger? (Score:3, Insightful)
On the other hand, if the kids are smart enough, think of the opportunity to play hookie: simply leave your RFID tag *within* the school, and sneak out! Go play video games all day, with an electronic alibi!
I am going to see if I can get work to start using these...
---------------------
Freedom or Evil: freevil.net [freevil.net]
G. W. Bush says, "You decide!"
Re:But Where's the Danger? (Score:3, Informative)
I thought Japan was an incredibly safe country.
Yes, was. And still is by the rest of the world's standard, I expect, with a national crime rate around 1.5% IIRC. But as another poster mentioned, the smaller crime rate makes incidents stand out all that much more when they do happen. (For example: residents of e.g. Washington D.C. or Chicago, when was the last time you were surprised by reading about a murder in the newspaper? Yet such events come as a severe shock to the Japanese.) In particular, th
BattleRoyale (Score:4, Interesting)
Battle Royale [battleroyalefilm.com]
Xix.
Sounds like... (Score:5, Funny)
Come with us now as we study the migratory patterns of the Japanese School Child.
[Helicoptor flys over a school yard full of children, one is separated out from the herd and tranqualized with a dart, scientist staples an RFID tag in his ear...]
Fun in the school (Score:4, Informative)
2. Change it for yours when you're out of school.
3. Enter the max. number of shops/places considered "dangerous" for you in one day.
4. Restore your RFID before going home.
5. Make fun of the poor bastard the next day of class
No profit but lots of fun
Used in the US for years, but for cattle (Score:4, Informative)
With a few slight mods to the screen formats, the Online Herd Management System should be applicable to schools.
Thank God (Score:3, Informative)
Obscure Simpsons reference.
Seriously though, one has to wonder about the ethics of something like tagging humans. The example I think of is the debate in ethics about 'coercion'... which is usually wrong except in rare circumstances such as protecting your own children. RFID tracking might be fine if a parent wants to have it for their young children, but under no circumstances could be mandated for adults (which I would argue, is more like 13 and older)
Just Softening the Population Up (Score:3, Insightful)
What if we had grown up wearing RFID tags? We probably wouldn't be objecting to today's chidren wearing RFID tags. More likely, the argument would be about something like "Should RFID tags be implanted or worn outside the body?".
That's the real danger of children wearing RFID tags. They will lose the ability to object when their own children are violated.
Pedophiles thank Japan (Score:3, Insightful)
Anime makes sense to me now (Score:5, Insightful)
The whole recurring theme about man and machine? Ghost in the Shell? Tetsuo in Akira merging with all the machinery around him? How many other examples can you name? I've always wondered why that's such a common idea in anime. I have my answer now.
It's because the Japanese think it's a good idea, that's why.
You know, Slashdot is a great place to be a geek. Look at the new technologies coming out, marvel at their application...but sometimes you just gotta say enough is enough.
And I have to draw the line right before RFID tagging my children.
It's impressively geeky, but c'mon guys - sometimes "because you can" isn't the right answer!
Re:Anime makes sense to me now (Score:3, Informative)
Stopping Abduction? (Score:5, Insightful)
kidstuff isn't for adults (Score:5, Insightful)
As for the slippery slope, remember that children have fewer rights than adults. To kids it looks like their rights are just suppressed, because they don't have the power to take it back. But it's actually because they are still learning to be people, when subordination to experience is necessary, and haven't actually developed the inalienable rights inherent in adults. Otherwise kids would have all emancipated themselves already, at latest in the 1960s when they all got money, cars, and TV role models.
It will be important to remember these distinctions when the police states attempt to raise the age of application of these tracking devices, saying that kids don't mind, why shouldn't adults, whose lives are risker. Adults who are monitored become even more neurotic, sources of risk. Monitoring us will make us less safe, as society becomes unhinged from the transferred social pressure. At least watching the increase in deviance, from unfairly implanted kids who are already developed into adults, will give us some data warning us away from general application of the technique.
False sense of security. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:False sense of security. (Score:4, Insightful)
In other words, as the scope of government expands, the level of personal responsibility is diminished. It doesn't benefit government to have people take responsibility for their own lives. The more dependent the people on government, the greater the benefit for those who control government.
RFID Service Pack 2.0 (Score:4, Interesting)
Get the RFID tags implanted to help locate children in earthquakes and major disasters. Get long lasting bio-driven versions that will survive between school sessions and vacations to protect against abductors. Widely deploy readers to track school kids who might choose to vandalize a school. Will the tags be removed at the end of one's education? No, they're harmless. Within a few generations you have a populace with high percentages of people already RFID tagged and having no problems. Require it of everyone.
If the current uses are "just" to reduce bueracracy, I'd definitely side with technologies that would not be easily expandable to a more trecherous slope.
How Japanese Students Get to School (Score:5, Informative)
Almost no kids in Japanese public schools are driven to school by their parents. It is not against the rules, but is generally discouraged. Public schools generally do not have buses, though some students will take a bus if their parents can afford it and they live far from school. Middle and high school students might bike or take a train, but those are often off-limits for elementary students, who must either walk or come by bus (Kids generally go to the local elementary/middle school, but there are exams for high school, which might require a long trip every day).
In my small rural town (pop. 7000), and in many other places, elementary and middle school students who are walking/biking must follow certain routes to and from school. Teachers are posted at locations along the route to check up on the students. But, they can't be everywhere. The middle school in my town has recently had problems with middle-aged men approaching female students. Students are out in the open for a much longer period of time than in the US and are thus bigger targets.
That said, I don't want to see my students given RFID tags. However, I wouldn't be surprised if it became very popular here. Elementary and middle school students already have tags with their full name and the school's name on it which must be worn at all times. Also, nearly all middle and high schools have uniforms. With all this required attire, it's hard for students to go someplace after school that they're not supposed to be, and this is part of the point. People will even sometimes complain to a school if they see its students doing something they don't approve of. There is already a lot of monitoring in place here, and I don't see this as being a big shift.
Related article -
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle
PS - It's not that important, but the CNET article is poorly written and unclear. Osaka city and Wakayama prefecture are completely seperate places, but someone who knows very little about Japan might think that Osaka city is the small "town" in Wakayama where the RFID tags are being tested. Anyone have a better article?
MOD PARENT UP! (Score:3, Insightful)
Since this article is talking about elementary school students, I'm really disgusted by the number of Funny-modded jokes about tentacle rape and spooge and what not. Sickos. You know, those kinds of anime & manga are much more popular in the US than in Japan, so despite its origin, what does that say about who are really the pervs?
But, for what its worth, despite Japan's reputation for being a safe country (which it ge
Disgusting (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Light on Details (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, I'm not joking at all. If you've been carrying an RFID tag as long as you can remember, requiring it by law won't seem like a big deal at all. Laws that take away freedoms are preceded by education campaigns to convince the public they want to give the freedom up.
s/Japan/Europe if you want. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Why should kids have any notion of privacy ? (Score:3, Insightful)
seriously, this is scary.