Bitterne Park secondary school is introducing a cashless catering scheme in the second half of the summer term, and has written to parents asking to use children’s fingerprints for a biometric identification system.
Fingerprints are converted into a template and stored, and a finger scan will allow pupils to be recognised in the canteen, and their lunch accounts to be debited.
Benefits
In 2007, it was estimated that 3,500 UK schools were using biometric information, and by 2009 the number of children fingerprinted was estimated to be two million. Cashless catering systems generally promise reduced queues, less administration and lower costs. They can also prevent bullying for dinner money. And while BP school is only seeking permission to fingerprint for catering, some biometric systems can be used for registration, door and locker access, and library management.
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Schools have to have parental consent for each child to participate, and pupils can object or refuse to have their biometric information taken or used. Bitterne Park School stresses it can’t use the information for any other purpose, must ensure it’s stored securely, must say what it intends to do with it, and can’t disclose personal information to another body unless the law allows it. It says once children stop using the system their biometric information will be securely deleted.
Concerns
Critics of biometric ID systems in schools have raised concerns about the “subtle psychological message using this technology gives to children, that to gain access to books/knowledge, food/money, normalises the use of biometrics for mundane yet essential activities”.
While children might find the gadgetry enticing, once systems are widespread then their value potentially changes, the argument runs.
“Consider movement around a campus. If students need an eye or palm or fingerprint scan to enter the library, board a bus, or buy a snack in the cafeteria, then the system knows who is where all of the time,” blogs Kevin Townsend, writing about Florida recently banning the use of biometrics in schools – and the biometrics industry’s fight against the ban.
"Then imagine this writ large across the nation. The authorities will know where everyone is, all of the time. The problem with introducing biometrics into schools is that we are breeding a generation that will be comfortable with and fully accepting of total government surveillance. And that is something we need to prevent now rather than redress when it’s too late."
Image under CC2 by José Luís Agapito