It's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your children are?

G

greenfreak

New Member
Parents look to microchip children

LONDON, England --Worried UK parents are asking to have tracking microchips implanted into their children following the murders of two 10-year-old girls, a cybernetics expert says.

Scientist Kevin Warwick from Reading University, west of London, says parents can keep track of their children with a tiny microchip implant in the arm or stomach.

Such a chip could prevent an abduction from becoming a murder, he says.

"A number of families have contacted me after the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman with the possibility of using an implant for their own daughter," Warwick told Reuters.

The bodies of the two friends were found in remote woodland two weeks after they went missing from their home town of Soham in eastern England on August 4.

One family, the Duvals, has offered up their 11-year-old daughter Danielle as the first guinea pig to test the electronic tag, which Warwick said he hopes to perfect sometime before Christmas.

The issue is set to become a controversial one in Britain with parents welcoming the idea, but civil liberties group expected to protest at the "big brother" possibilities of the tags being exploited either by the authorities or illegally.

Robotics scientist Warwick is a controversial figure already in Britain, gaining fame after he wired his own nervous system to a computer in an experiment he hopes will eventually give paralysed people more control over their own bodies.

"There are several options, including the possibility of using a mobile phone network to transmitting a signal and linking it to a global positioning system," he said.

The operation would involve implanting a small transmitter about one inch long into the child's arm or stomach, Warwick says.

"A potential abductor wouldn't know the child had the device and it could be switched off to sleep mode when it wasn't needed to conserve its battery," he added.

Watches that perform a similar function are already commercially available in the United States, but they can be too easily removed and discarded, Warwick said.

Danielle's mother Wendy told Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper: "After the news of Holly and Jessica we sat down as a family and discussed what we could do... I know nothing is ever foolproof but we believe the microchip will go a long way to protecting her."

A spate of recent abductions in the United States have also put parents there on edge as they worry about their children, but Warwick believes it is for society to decide if a microchip implant is the ethical way to combat such fears.

"There are of course many more questions to be asked and I suspect there will be objections to an implant, but if the general trend in Britain is in favour of such an operation it will be ready to go by Christmas," he said.
Click to expand...

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/09/03/uk.implant/index.html

I don't know about you but I didn't know it was commercially available in the US. That makes me wonder who is getting these things and why.
 
Nothing is inevitable...Most people will find the idea reprehensible, and it will take a lot of time to gain even partial acceptance. They're still trying to get guns controlled...
 
Inevitable did not necessarily = predetermined. People wil fight and fight and fight in what they believe in, and they should. It's what creates a kind of stable unstableness in the world.
 
Alright, my first thought, WTF? :eek:

Now, after thinking it over some, I don't know. I'm guessing none of you that answered that this is a negative thing have ever known a family that was affected by a kidnapping. I've got six kids, and the thought of one of them being gone, where I don't know where they are, or what is being done to them, that's pretty horrifying in my eyes, more horrifying than implanting a homing device in my child. I'd consider it.
 
PT - I totally get what you mean (well, I don't have kids but I have a good imagination). I just think that, as with most things, there are both good and bad sides of this.
The benefits seem a little more obvious than the dangers right now, and that is what causes concern. It is easier to find the pros, because they are staring at us - what with the recent child kidnappings - but what could happen in the future is anyone's guess.
 
Not to belittle the situation of kidnapping, but the rate of kidnapping has actually gone down in the US over the past 10 years. Seems the media has been caught blowing things out of proportion again. I've already stated that I have 2 daughters, but your children are more likely to be taken by an estranged spouse than by someone on the street after money, and the liklihood of an estranged spouse taking the children is extremely unlikely.

Here is some small comfort on the matter...
Missing children statistics
 
That is somewhat comforting, Gato, but although the media may be whoring the situations, and misrepresenting how often these really take place, it does seem to be a growing trend towards young girls, and those young girls are often raped, and then killed. I would have the homing device just so I could go out, find that son of a bitch, shove bamboo shoots under his fingernails, skin him, hang him by his balls, and let red ants crawl up his ass. The second day would even be more fun.
 
If it was TRUELY in a controled enviroment Where ONLY I had the equipment to find them then yes. But it WILL be in the total control of the GOVT. and i refuse to let them have anymore information on my whereabouts than necessary. Plus would you consider having one implanted in yourself?
 
At my age, no. I would also have it removed from my child at some point as well, 18, maybe 21. Although, Sam, we will have implants before I die, because eventually, if you don't have an implant, you won't have money.
 
PuterTutor said:
I would have the homing device just so I could go out, find that son of a bitch, shove bamboo shoots under his fingernails, skin him, hang him by his balls, and let red ants crawl up his ass. The second day would even be more fun.
Click to expand...

Note to self:

Never piss-off PT.

:D
 
You can piss me off all you want, Scanty. Just don't mess with my girls.
 
PuterTutor said:
You can piss me off all you want, Scanty. Just don't mess with my girls.
Click to expand...

I kinda feel like that about my younger sister (she is 11). You make her cry, I make you cry. You hurt her and I will get personal.
 
PuterTutor said:
At my age, no. I would also have it removed from my child at some point as well, 18, maybe 21. Although, Sam, we will have implants before I die, because eventually, if you don't have an implant, you won't have money.
Click to expand...

i agree with that, parents have to responsability of their childs, and they also have the right to keep an eye on them, when they have "the legal age" the implant should be removed.
 
I'm not sure what I feel about this subject .. but I do know that I want my children to be safe and "feel" safe. This is a tough issue, but it's an individual issue, I believe. What's right for one person or family may not be right for me and vice versa ...

I honestly don't know what I'd do if given the opportunity.
 
One family, the Duvals, has offered up their 11-year-old daughter Danielle as the first guinea pig to test the electronic tag, which Warwick said he hopes to perfect sometime before Christmas.
Click to expand...


Damn, I knew my family name went low enough in history, but not to that scale :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top