January 21, 2012
Some New-York schools
have decided to strap fat kids with devices that monitor them 24/7. The device
collects all kinds of information from the students and sends them to a
database that can be consulted by school officials and such.
This was apparently done
without the parent’s consent and represents an unprecedented intrusion in
student’s private lives. Some might say “Well it’s in an effort to fight
obesity and blah blah blah”.
I say:
1. It’s
mostly an effort to make money for the company that makes these things;
2. These
kinds of privacy violations are always “justified” by a bogus “good cause”; and
3. Why
don’t we monitor the fat teachers at the school too? And the fat principal? And
the fat lunch lady? And the kids’ fat parents? You see where that could lead.
Here’s an article from the NY Post.
SCHOOLS ‘SPY’ ON FAT KIDS
Big Brother is joining the battle of the bulge.
A group of Long Island
students will soon be wearing controversial electronic monitors that allow
school officials to track their physical activity around the clock.
The athletics chair for
the Bay Shore schools ordered 10 Polar Active monitors, at $90 a pop, for use
starting this spring. The wristwatchlike devices count heartbeats, detect
motion and even track students’ sleeping habits in a bid to combat obesity.
The information is
displayed on a color-coded screen and gets transmitted to a password-protected
Web site that students and educators can access.
The devices are already
in use in school districts in St. Louis and South Orange, NJ ~ and have raised
privacy concerns among some parents and observers.
But Ted Nagengast, the
Bay Shore athletics chair, said, “It’s a great reinforcement in fighting the
obesity epidemic. It tells kids, in real time, ‘Am I active? Am I not active?’
We want to give kids the opportunity to become active.”
The monitors are
distributed by Polar Electro, of Lake Success, LI, the US division of a Finland
firm.
In the South
Orange-Maplewood School District, where earlier versions of the devices have
been used for two years, upper-grade students’ marks in phys ed are based in
part on heart-rate monitors and activity sensors.
Teachers use hand-held
computers to collect data from each student’s wrist monitor during class, then
upload the information to the school computer system for storage and long-term
tracking.
But privacy advocates and
parents worry that schools are using electronic monitors in phys ed without
families’ knowledge or consent.
“I didn’t even know it
was going on, and I’m active in the school,” said Beth Huebner, of St. Louis.
Her son, a fourth-grader,
wore a Polar Active monitor in class without her OK last fall at Ross
Elementary School.
“We have gotten no
information about the Web-site security or where the data will go,” Huebner
said.
“When you get into
monitoring people’s biological vital signs, that’s a pretty intrusive
measurement,” said Jay Stanley, of the American Civil Liberties Union. “There
are key privacy interests at play.”
At the very least, says
Stanley, parents must have a say in how long the data will be stored and who
will have access to it and schools must obtain parents’ consent.
“A program like this
should only be voluntary. Nobody should be forced to reveal biological
indicators,” he said.
“It’s all about secondary
use,” said Virginia Rezmierski, an expert on information technology and privacy
at the University of Michigan.
“Does the data pass along
with the child from school to school?
When will insurance
companies want to get access to it?
Will a school want to
medicate a child that the monitor identifies as hyperactive?
It’s potentially very
dangerous ground.”
~ Source: NY Post
Isn't it stupid that electronic devices should take over the role of parents who all too often neglect their children in a way that they don't spend as much time with them as they could? I think no such measures would be needed if they cared more about their children. But unfortunately today's parents don't realize that children need to interact and cooperate with others in order to develop healthy relationships later in life. If this is neglected there really is the threat that children will suffer from some emotional problems or even obesity. That's why I visited as many baby-centers in Toronto as possible when my children were born. I discovered a number of funny ways to build a strong relationship and I always try to spend as much of my free time as possible with them to avoid similar problems in their adolescence.
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