Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Girl to get tracker implant to ease parents' fears

UN | 03.09.2002 09:52

The parents of an 11-year-old girl are to take the extraordinary step of having her fitted with a microchip so that her movements can be traced if she is abducted.

The parents of an 11-year-old girl are to take the extraordinary step of having her fitted with a microchip so that her movements can be traced if she is abducted.
Danielle Duval will have the device implanted in her arm in the next few months, the scientist assisting the plan claimed yesterday. The miniature chip will apparently send a signal via a mobile phone network to a computer, which will be able to pinpoint her location on an electronic map.

The parents, Wendy and Paul Duval from Reading in Berkshire, said they had decided on the step after the abduction and murder of the schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

"After the news of Holly and Jessica , we sat down as a family and discussed what we could do," Mrs Duval said. "Like us, Danielle needs to feel that she's safe at all times and could be located in a real emergency. I know nothing is ever 100% or foolproof, but we believe the microchip will go a long way towards protecting her."

Mrs Duval did not accept that the family were panicking or overreacting, saying it was only sensible for a parent to use technology when it was available. "If a car is stolen, it can be fitted with a computer to enable it to be tracked - so why not apply the same principle to finding missing children?" she said.

Yesterday several children's charities said they were unsure about the implant.

A spokesman for Kidscape, the charity aimed at stopping children from being bullied and sexually abused, said: "We do not think this is a good idea. Children should be taught about the possible dangers, rather than having something stuck on them that can maybe track them, and perhaps then only when it is too late."

A spokesman for the NSPCC said: "Parents and guardians must remember child abductions are extremely rare, and that the vast majority of abuse happens within the home."

The designer of the chip, Kevin Warwick of the cybernetics department at Reading University, conceded that some parents might abuse the system or overreact if their children were late home, but maintained that tagging was the correct course of action in the light of recent events.

He said: "The implant won't prevent abductions: nothing will.

"However, if the worst happens, parents will at least be in with a chance of finding their children alive."

He has called for an urgent government debate on the issue, and believes ministers should consider implants for all children.

Professor Warwick said there were a few technological problems to be ironed out, including exactly how to recharge the chip's battery, but he expected Danielle to be fitted with the device, under local anaesthetic by a doctor, in the next few months. "Her parents want me to proceed as quickly as possible, and I wouldn't waste their time if I thought it wasn't capable of working," he said.

Among the technical questions to be addressed is whether the chip should remain dormant in the limb until an emergency arose, or whether it should emit a signal 24 hours a day.

"This is why we need the debate to take place," he said. "In future it may be that only the police have the authority to allow the system to be activated. But, as things stand, parents can have that right themselves."

Danielle, who met the professor with her parents last week, said she had no concerns about being fitted with the chip. "I will feel so much safer knowing that mum and dad could find me in an emergency. The professor said the chip won't hurt, so that's OK."

Mrs Duval, 33, a school catering controller, and her husband, Paul, 34, a driving instructor, want their other daughter, Amy, seven, to undergo the treatment.

"We'll wait until Amy's a bit older, so that she fully understands what's happening," they said.

UN
- Homepage: http://www.guardian.co.uk/child/story/0,7369,785073,00.html

Comments

Display the following 9 comments

  1. It doesn't work — johnny_boy
  2. The thinner end of the wedge — jackslucid
  3. When in Rome.... — Centurion
  4. At home — Dan
  5. hahaha — UN
  6. Cranky Times Ahead — Space -Trotskyist
  7. Never a truer word — Centurion
  8. Aye, but... — Devil's arsehole
  9. Centurion — johnny_boy
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech