UK database of all kids

The spread of the database-driven society proceeds apace. Today’s Times reports that

Senior social workers have given warning of the dangers posed by a new government register that will store the details of every child in England from next year.
They fear that the database, containing the address, medical and school details of all under-18s, could be used to harm the children whom it is intended to protect.

Not being a newspaper writer or a member of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, I don’t have an interest in claiming that the danger of child-abusers getting details is the biggest problem here. (After all, children have most to fear from people they know. ) But still, they have a point. Any database that has an estimated 33,000 users is going to be leaky as a broken sieve.

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.

Every child in the country it says. So you have to love this bit:

….. information about the children of celebrities and politicians is likely to be excluded from the system.

3 thoughts on “UK database of all kids

  1. And this will help us how? How does having a bloated, unsafe, expensive (I base those assumptions on previous government IT projects) database, going to do anything to help those children or their parents? The same with ID cards. They’re not going to stop criminals or terrorists, they will cost billions, and they will effectively make it a breeze for identity thieves. Recently we’ve had that Trojan in America which was able to steal peoples’ information from US government offices. And the Americans are actually better at IT then we are.

    And yet no-one seems to question the politicians! And as I may have said before, they are typically the least trusted of people! Is this whole country mad? And this “….. information about the children of celebrities and politicians is likely to be excluded from the system.”! The slimy bastards. One rule for us, another for them eh? Of course everyones equal in this country, it’s just some are more equal than others. Why does nobody care about this?

  2. this is shocking. it can only be some craven plan to indoctrinate our youth into allowing the state to monitor their every detail.

    what critera will be used to exclude “celebrities” from having their children data based? for example does being a retard on big brother or the x factor count?

  3. XanderG, Toby

    Thanks. Great comments.You’ve said it all. I’m glad that other people find this disturbing too.

    And I never even thought about defining what constitutes a celeb. Wow.

    Everyone who objects to being in the endless national databases should sign up for every I-want-my-five-minutes show in existence and then claim to be exempt through their celebrity status. How hard can it be to get on the Jeremy Kyle show?

Comments are closed.