The British Education Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) has released guidelines on child fingerprinting in schools. The government's focus has been solely on data protection issues whist disregarding whether it is morally acceptable for a society to allow widespread fingerprinting of children.

The guidelines state: "There is nothing explicit in the Data Protection Act to require schools to seek the consent of parents before implementing a biometric technology system." The guidelines do suggest though that: "Whilst consent is not required for all processing of personal data, schools should normally involve pupils and parents in their decisions to use biometric technologies as is the case with other decisions made during the school life of children."

The Information commissioner has released a statement that says issues such as consent or whether biometrics will soften up a future generation to such technologies "while raising wider questions of public attitude and public policy, are not specifically data protection issues".

Read the guidance at http://tinyurl.com/ytoqnv

Read the Information Commissioner's statement at http://tinyurl.com/3529e5