Australian educational authority forcing kids into invasive database
Joel sez, "Education Queensland in Australia is creating a database of children including photos, 'ambitions,' addresses and other personal information as part of a state-wide intranet. The Education Minister is saying that if parents refuse to allow their children's details to be included in the database, they'll be refused an education - subverting the legal requirement that the govt provide children with an education, AND the kids' privacy in a very disturbing way.
As someone who watched a fifteen year old get inside an Education Queensland 'secure' intranet within ten minutes a couple of years back, there's no way it'd be difficult for a determined individual to get inside."
Link
(Thanks, Joel!)
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A clusterfuck in the making. How it serves "education" is unclear to say the least unless it'll be a forum for educating hackers, and in the linked article there was an unsubtle segue to an anecdote about 4 teachers arrested in Queensland in the past two weeks in connection with an international child porn network. Well, what the teachers need, obviously, is access to more personal student data!
It isn't all bad. The database will be limited to authorised users.
Authorised users like the four teachers just arrested on child porn charges.
Mac
Beware!! The Courier Mail is one of the most right wing of Murdoch's papers down under. Sensationalism abounds, and facts are not neccessarily always checked. Not saying that this story does not warrant investiagation - but tread carefully. Murdoch papers are driven by clicks which lead to advertising, not providing the public with a service or protection. The headline starts with the word 'Pedophile' ... need I say more? P.
How useful would an Australian database be, anyway? Bruce, Bruce, Sheila, Bruce, Sheila, Sheila...
"How useful would an Australian database be, anyway?"
Extremely useful.
Psst, would you like to buy an A?
...Look at it this way, kids - remember that "secret file" they told you they were compiling about you throughout your school life that was supposed to have all the things about you that you've done bad in the past, and none of the good, that would follow you for the rest of your life? Well, this is the hi-tech, nextgen version of that.
secretmojo "Psst, would you like to buy an A?"
I would. Very much so, in fact. It's not one of those grey market A's, is it? It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that I've been stung in the past, you understand. I picked up an imported British one once, not realizing that their alphabet operates at 50hz, vice 60hz. I know. I'm so naive.
A database of children by its very nature quickly matures into a database of adults. It would not even take a generation. 20-30 years would be sufficient to have files on a nation's entire young adult population.
Perversely, fear-mongering reporting justifies the means in this case. The great unwashed need to understand why opening files on thieir kids is A Bad Idea.
Have these database compilers ever heard of Myspace and Facebook? Kids are posting their WHOLE LIVES on these sites. The info is already online. No need to expel anyone from the National Spelling Bee.
There are a lot more pedophiles among us than there are terrorists. Yet if you tell them it's about terrorism, most people seem to be more than willing to accept any form of privacy intrusion. Passenger records, fingerprint databases, biometric scanning, random bag searches, you name it. Witness the full range of the "I have nothing to hide" mentality. No problem when the police collects DNA samples of an entire nation. No problem to have your children's most private details stored who knows where. You'd happily let someone from airport security scan your teenage daughter's genitals to make sure there's not a gun in there. Because they say it's to protect us from the evil terrorists.
Privacy is privacy, no matter in whose database your personal details are collected. Once your data is there and someone else controls your information, it can and will be used against you. It's just a matter of time.
It's interesting to see that "pedophile fears" seems to trump "terrorist fears" when it comes to databases. Lately, why do the bogeymen always need to get invoked, anyway? Is it really the only way that's left to get a reaction from the unwashed masses? Can't we just agree that we simply don't like when fascist dickheads are shoving one forced intrusion after another down our throats? Or is this not a valid objection anymore?
In an ideal world, this would be a government ploy to increase homeschooling and create a nation of motivated learners.
We are not in an ideal world.
I thought they were already doing this worldwide with Myspace
When I think back to my childhood, way back at the dawn of the information age, I wonder how we weren't all kidnapped or molested without databases such as these.
Ok...so why are they doing this? Not to mention being so militant about it? Very atypical for Australia of all places too.
Another goose-step in the march towards a New World Order.
Soon, no doubt, Australia will also be collecting the kiddies DNA- to protect them, of course. Its already passed and been funded in the US, parents may opt-out but are given no notice, nor are they asked for their consent.
This is terrifying....after reading the ebook Cyber Alert, I am aware of how easy it is to access this type of information, no matter how "protected" it is. What a horrible idea....
This policy may violate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which says in part that:
"1. No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation."
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm
By collecting:
"Photographs, personal details, career aspirations, off-campus activities and student performance records are being collected from all 1251 state schools."
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23868131-3102,00.html
There are quite a few ways that this violation of the children's privacy could be used to hurt Australian children.
For example, it could search for and monitor "Arab-looking" kids.
You know, for their own protection.
Then it would be easy to collect them and ship them to remote homes for such children in the event of a serious terrorist incident.
It's not like the government of Australia has ever done something like that before.
Oh no.
Well, the natives don't count. That was a different situation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit-Proof_Fence_(film)
BTW, the Canadian government ran similar schools for Native Americans.
They're still digging up mass graves.
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/brenda-norrell/2008/04/mass-graves-revealed-indian-children-canadian-schools
http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/RecentUpdatesampArticles/Apr102008LocationofMassGravesRevealed/tabid/71/Default.aspx
We can only hope and pray that such things will never return.
It's interesting to see that "pedophile fears" seems to trump "terrorist fears" when it comes to databases
Just imagine what kind of fear terrorist pedophiles could inspire.
I could say something about religious residential schools...
to the point: Australian parents that love their children must teach them to lie correctly. "Ambitions" for instance; "to be a good consumer unit"
Japan long had and has a comprehensive system of citizen registry. Anonymity is difficult, records follow everywhere, nothing can be done without registry. I'm not current on present day C.V. and resume/application processes, but a standard line included before was: "Punishments and Rewards: None" Meaning: never been caught.
Prep your kids Aussies, or one day they might turn to you to ask why you did nothing to protect them.
If you had pedophile ninja pirate zombie robot terrorists you'd rule the world.
SALAMANDER pedophile ninja pirate zombie terorists
Government offical salamander pedophile ninja pirate zombie terorists...
you win
What the hey, this seems like fun -
Gay Fundamentalist government offical salamander pedophile ninja pirate zombie terorists...
One of the major tabloids in Queensland ran this story yesterday with a different angle:
The database can be used by paedophiles!
Just why a paedophile would go to the problem of hacking into a database instead of, say, just following a child home is never made clear.
To me this just sounds like more I Don't Understand it So it Must Be Bad (IDUSMBB) or possibly It Is Expensive and/or Difficult To Implement So it Must Be Bad (IIEDTISMBB).
That's unrelated to the privacy issues, of course.
But I guess the school authorities have full access to any child's picture, address, interests, grades and whatever other information they care to collect. Whether that information is stored in a digital database or a manila folder is, IMHO, irrelevant. Except, perhaps, that "digital database" sounds more threatening to the technophobes.
why digital is worse than paper:
Your hand is the fingerprint reader. The wrist clamp prevents escape. The match on the print via data link enables the on site computer to make the decision on the spot to send the 10,000 volts through the wrist clamp. At least paper gives you a day or two head start.
Wow, what is it about this thread in particular that brings out the spammers? Or is just that I'm not seeing them before they're pruned in all the other threads?
But Law of Attraction spam now, really? You definitely don't know the audience around here . . . although I wouldn't mind getting my hands on some of those "positive neural chemicals."
So to clarify... the database is being used to make sure students stay in school and, if they do choose to finish at 16 (2 years prior to a senior certificate, giving eligibility for tertiary education), that they be enrolled in some sort of apprenticeship. The idea is to prevent kids dropping out of high school without going on to learn some sort of pliable trade. The policy itself is egalitarian and designed to break the poverty cycle in lower socioeconomic brackets. As for the 'aspirations'... I believe the idea here is that the department of education can be more involved in creating career pathways for students with limited options. I don't think it's fair to go straight to ringing the paeodophile alarm (which by the way is to the point where it needs its own version of Godwin's law).
Meh... it's only happening in the state of Queensland - Australia's version of the United States conservative Deep South. This database would never get off the ground in other states.
Anyway, what's Doctorow's beef with the land downunder? Every single time he posts something about Australia it's never a "wonderful thing"... sadly it's always derogatory.
sounds like a challenge!
Uke,
Have you seen anything glowing about the US, UK or Canada lately? The English speaking world is not in a particularly glorious state at the moment. If you've got something wonderful, Suggest A Link.
The idea is to prevent kids dropping out of high school without going on to learn some sort of pliable trade.
Since they require a picture, exactly what trade are they plying?
@ spazzm
I think I Don't Understand, Must be Bad (IDUMB) is punchier.
there is a reason why only bad things happen in australia. this place started out as a gigantic big jail island. everyone except the authorities pretty much had the right to slaughter, imprison and enslave anyone they decided to. i don't think this culture has ever died here.
now i say here because i am unfortunate enough to live in this place. worse, and relevant to this article, i went to school at a queensland school, toowoomba, no less. i was rated as an exceptional student by many many teachers, yet i was consistently treated like a trouble maker, harrassed by the a-crowd at school, beaten up and frequently harrassed by the bogans, and best of all, due to the tall poppy syndrome which of course is something you also find in jails, only the nasty thorny bushes rise to the top beautiful and useful ones don't, and my frequently noted above average ability (and according to the test i did in year 7 in the top 1%) was not cultivated in any way at all. by the end of highschool i pretty much dropped out. it was discovered some years later that i have ADD inattentive type so really it's not that surprising i did so poorly with absolutely no effort made to challenge my intelligence.
speaking of wonderful helpful school programs, they invented this 'levels' system for discipline, for which any teacher, for any reason, could determine that you had 'failed' to live up to your responsibilities and downgrade you a level. i got downgraded for not handing in an assignment by a vindictive english teacher who specifically refused to let us do 1984 as a reading assignment because i was so keen on it. this disallowed me from what had been up until the year i entered year 11, a right of us older kids, to not be at school during the exam period when we didn't have a scheduled examination. up until year 11 i never needed to study anyway, and got 90%+ in most of my exams most of the time, as i have an exceptionally good memory and exams are
pretty much just regurgitation of facts learned, and i only needed to cover it once or twice in class, do a few exercises, and i could do it again on demand anytime i was asked to (this is part of the reason why my add was never spotted also, because i wasn't a difficult student).
anyway, doing things arse-backwards is the trademark characteristic of queensland authorities in general, this applies not only to schools, but also government both state and local, the police, and most probably to a great degree of corporate management. i don't quite know how i got stuck here but it's been like a prison for me the whole time i've lived here. probably time to gtfo.
bogans?
Buck up, big world.
Jo Mullins:
The point being made has nothing to do with what the database is to be used for. This is totally irrelevant and, as I suspect you are a flack of the organization in question, an attempt to sidetrack the issue into a more positive light.
That said, while I'm all for young people developing skills, it's not the government's responsibility to babysit and coerce them once they've been given the legal right to leave school. That legal right exists for a reason.
Furthermore, the kind of details that will be included in this database are totally irrelevant to achieving the goals you describe. A name and phone number would do. You also said "As for the 'aspirations... I believe the idea here is that the department of education can be more involved in creating career pathways for students with limited options." Not the department's responsibility. The departments responsibility is to teach a set curriculum, not plan the kid's life. I don't know anyone who got anything but misdirection from these attempts to interfere in what is a choice to be made by individuals.
The pedophile fear-mongering card has been overplayed. The purpose of the database ("breaking the poverty cycle," yeah, good luck on that one) has been overplayed. What's the real issue?
The issue is that Education Queensland is breaking civil liberties. The comments made by this so-called minister, who is quite obviously self-absorbed and blinded by his illusion of power, are clear: if parents refuse to submit to this invasion of privacy, their children will be denied an education.
Well, I fail to see how he has the power to make that decision. There's nothing about being a politician that grants you the power to break the law, and the government has the legal responsibility to make public education readily available. There are also privacy laws that provide citizens with certain protections. If Welford intends to continue on both fronts, there's a few criminal charges waiting for him.
Nobody has to submit that kind of information to any database, networked or not, unwillingly. If you want to collect data, make it opt-in. Not opt-out and certainly not mandatory.
The minute the government decides it knows best and will implement its ideal situation even if it means breaking the law and all that we believe in is the minute we are in big, big trouble.
Looks like my son will be going to school over the border, where people can think straight.
Nanakorobi yaoki, jinsei wa kore kara da.
I guess that I'm grateful that you wrote that instead of the lyrics to Tubthumpin'.
there's a difference?
http://www.evisu.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/daruma.jpg
Dear Elfspice
do you know the story of Bohidarma?
She was one of Cinderella's ugly step-sisters, right?
shh now, help the young
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma
Joel Falconer:
I'm not a departmental flack, my knowledge in this area has only been developed to the extent that I care about education policy. I don't think I at any point made my opinion on this matter explicit.. I was merely responding to several comments made previously as to what on earth the database was for. You are clearly a libertarian and so perhaps for you the purpose of the database is irrelevant compared to the fundamental violation of a pillar in your particular political philosophy. For others though that perhaps believe in a greater governmental role in society, weighing the risks of such a measure against the potential benefits is critical... and always germane when discussing policy. For this reason it's important that people know what the database is for. It's probably not helpful to the discussion to dispatch information like this as being irrelevant off-hand.
Just another brick in the wall. I'm still pissed about my school in Perth trying to get biometric sign in and attendance records.
This would basically we have to scan our fingerprint at the start of each class. What a load of horseshit.
All this just calls to mind the time when my son, aged twelve, got into the highest level of the school network in less than two seconds. He did that in front of the school librarian, who was astute enough to realise something might be amiss with security, and gently asked him to show the boss what he did. (The other point being that my kid wasn't the only one who knew how to do this.) And then there was time his friend was suspended for collecting all the teachers' passwords. I could go on. These kids both went to Queensland schools. You can't tell me this new database will not be breached.
Having said that, we do have to be skeptical of anything the Courier-Mail prints. It has a long-standing political bias against the the party currently in government. I don't bother reading it, I get my news interstate.
You are clearly a libertarian and so perhaps for you the purpose of the database is irrelevant compared to the fundamental violation of a pillar in your particular political philosophy.
Um, I'm pretty much a socialist and I don't want this either.
As a part time Media teacher, moderator of a childrens website and an Australian, I am deeply disturbed by this. Firstly to deny a child an education on such a flimsy pretext is appalling, it seems that the database is more important than giving kids an education. Secondly, I am constantly reminding my students/audience not to post identifying information. Thirdly, as someone else mentioned I can see this as an oppurtunity to develop a database on every citizen in the future, which is akin to making identity cards compulsory - something we voted overwhelmingly against a few years ago. Fourthly, we recently suspended 3 year 10's at my school for hacking into the education departments databases and gathering information on other students for cyberbullying, so I feel it will be ludicrously easy to get unathorised access. Sixthly, what's going to prevent me or my peers from accessing this site for personal reasons (whatever the motive?). Finally as a famous Qld politician once said: "No, it's wrong, it stinks and I don't like it"