In the United Kingdom, the Government plans to construct a Universal Child Database under the provisions of the Children Act 2004 .
The database
While the proposals for the database grew out of concern for children at risk of child abuse or neglect, reinforced by the death of Victoria Climbié, all 11 million children in the UK are to be registered on the database. The data entries for each child are to consist of [1]:
- - name, address, gender and date of birth;
- - a unique identifying number;
- - the name and contact details of any person with parental responsibility or who has care of him at any time;
- - details of any education being received by him, including details of any educational institution attended;
- - the name and contact details of any person providing primary medical and other services specified by the Secretary of State;
- - information as to the existence of any cause for concern in relation to him;
- - other information, not including medical records or other personal records, specified by the Secretary of State.
Margaret Hodge, Minister of State for Children, has also stated that drug or alcohol use by parents, relatives and neigbours, together with other aspects of their behaviour, may be recorded [2].
Concerns
The Government's proposals have been subject to criticism and concern from a variety of sources.
Action on Rights for Children claims that the proposals run contrary to a child's right to privacy contained in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, while Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights has stated that the "serious interference" with the rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to respect for private life) seems to be difficult to justify [3].
Drawing a parallel with the way that governments in Eastern Europe and Spain gained too much power and information in the 20th century, the
Government's own Information Commissioner has expressed concern over this and a number of other national databases (including the Citizen Information Project, NHS National Programme for IT, and national identity cards), warning that there was a danger of the country sleepwalking into a surveillance society [4].
Others have claimed that the database is also a covert method of gathering entries for the National Identity Register.
Partly due to her backing of the Child Database, Privacy International awarded Margaret Hodge the 2004 Big Brother Award for "Worst Public Servant".
See also
External links
