‘Robo prof’ Kevin Warwick says he’d be prepared to insert tracker microchips into children if there is enough public support.
The University of Reading cybernetics expert has been bombarded with hundreds of requests from parents for Big Brother-style ID microchips in the wake of the abduction of Madeleine McCann.
More than 1,000 anxious parents have contacted the Professor of Cybernetics asking about getting microchips inserted into their children.
The professor is receiving more than 100 emails and letters a day from worried mums and dads considering chipping their child so they can keep track of their whereabouts at the touch of a button.
The 53-year-old believes four-year-old Madeleine’s abduction has a lot to do with the rise in enquiries.
Advances in technology mean minor surgery is no longer required for all implants – some can be inserted via an injection.
And now – if he has the support – the professor said he is prepared to go ahead. Prof Warwick, father to Madeline, 25, and James, 23, said: “It’s up to the parents and the children. But there are questions over the age of the child. I would never want a parent to have to use the technology. But there are children abducted. I do not know why [some charity statistics] are belittling the problem.”
The professor, from Tilehurst, who had a personal ID microchip inserted into his arm in 1998, said he could not possibly answer every request there were so many.
One read: “I have been deeply upset by the abduction of Madeleine McCann and your name keeps coming up in my internet searches into tracking.” Another said: “My little boy is two-and-a-half years old. I think a chip is a great idea.”
Following the abduction of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002, a Spencers Wood couple – Paul and Wendy Duval – planned to have a chip put into their 11-year-old daughter, Danielle. This would have been the first chip implant of its kind and Prof Warwick agreed to do it. However, his plans were thwarted because of a massive negative response. He said: “Trevor McDonald even did a programme saying what a terrible person I was.”
Many charities and children’s groups publicly denounced chipping youngsters deeming it intrusive and disturbing.
Michelle Elliot, director of child protection charity Kidscape, said she was against the idea but understood why many parents wanted to use phone-tracking devices or wristbands.
However she said: “For the past 25 years between five and seven children have been abducted and killed by a stranger each year, and that has not changed.
“There is no guarantee of your child’s safety. But the chances [of something like this happening] are so remote that you have to think about the message you’re giving them.”
3 Comments
August 7, 2007 at 10:45 am
i don’t understand, what kid wants to go around all the time with thier parents watching everymove they make…
i mean i get what your trying to do, but that dosent exactly give a child much freedom.
September 16, 2007 at 12:03 pm
i feel the chips are a fab idea a child could have the chip removed once they reach an age that is appropriate
January 28, 2008 at 7:43 am
Why not just have a police office assigned to every child and follow them everywhere, keeping records of all their activities and speech. Then, if the parents are “subversives” they may give them away.
The incidence of child abduction is so very low that this is a typical hysterical over-reaction to a problem that rarely exists. What is wrong with parents being responsible for their children’s safety instead of Big Brother?