Softly softly, intro ID Cards

Gordon Brown knows that to get everyone registered at once for ID cards would be impractical and unworkable. So he's coming for the chldren first.

Thanks to The children Act of 2004, ContactPoint is coming. Formerly know as the Children's IS Index, this is basically the National Identity Register for kids. Every child in the UK is going to be given an ID number and a entry on the register, information will include stuff like who their doctor is, about their parents, educational establishment and history and whether or not they have accessed so-called 'sensitive services' - perhaps mental or sexual health clinics or similar. Although not declared, other information may be held on the database (the law allows for decidsions of this nature to be made later). Possibily whether parents claim benefits or not....

So, reasonably basic information available to roughly 300,000 people on a database (run by private corporation CAPITA) about 11 million young people in the UK. The offspring of the famous will get a higher privacy rating than others, so less people will be able to access their records. So a son or daughter of a politician, pop star or footballl player is more protected than YOUR children.

The mind can boggle at how much this venture will cost, and the politicians are keen to laud it as a valuable weapon in the fight against paedophilia. We, on the other hand think the money could be used far more effectively in improving services for looking after young people. Security is at threat, the surveillance society staggers forward and Labour politicians are happy to wave it on.

According to the extremely useful Action on Rights for Children (ARCH):
"Consideration is currently being given to linking the Children’s Index to the National Identity Register (NIR) in order to create a single population register. This recommendation was made in the final report of the Citizen’s Information Project, an initiative led by the Office for National Statistics and HM Treasury."

There's not much being said on this subject at the moment, but it's happening already. You will be a number unless people get angry and start standing up to this.

LiNKS:

http://www.arch-ed.org/

ARCH - Action on Rights for Children

http://www.no2id.net/

No2id, battling ID cards and the database state

http://archrights.wordpress.com/

ARCH's blog on Children's Rights and surveillance