‘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.”
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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.
i feel the chips are a fab idea a child could have the chip removed once they reach an age that is appropriate
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?
I don’t see anything wrong with this idea. You hear and read about it every day, child was kidnapped or murdered. This world is sick of disguisting people, and I will do everything in my power to keep my child safe, and if that means putting a tracking device in her I will, at least I know if something ever were to happen she would be found immediately!
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I feel the chip is heaven sent to have the peace of mind that your child will be able to located and returned before any harm would come to them. How could any one view the use of locator chip in any other way.
please let me know when these will be on the market/ready to use..
Its 2009 and to many children are being abducted not to consider this. I think it would stop many abductions instantly. If every child had to get an injection as a part of the required immunization, this would prevent children from being raped, killed left as trash. As a child you are your parents repsonsibility and safety is a great concern that out weighs privacy issues. At age 18 the child should have the chip removed, if they desire to do so. Let’s stop the senseless abductions of our youth. PLEASE!!!!!
Where does a parent go to get this chip inserted into their child? How do we sign our kids up for this sort of technology? Is there an email address for this professor?
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Well, I would just like to say to all those other responses that maybe you should try reading up on some books published by police officers on how children get kidnapped all the time. I myself am reading one to my children and it’s full of knowledge on what to do if something where to happen. The point of the insertion is not to keep an eye on your children ignorant people…. It’s a key to finding your priceless possession when someone snatches them from a grocery store or somewhere that you are only 2 ft away!!!! I would love this and I am searching for one on the internet now!!!!!
i believe that every child should have thier freedom but when it comes to thier safety and me having a little more peae of mind when shes not with me im all for it. my daughter is only three and im already scared to death to et her out o my sight i have ben looking into a surgical way fo a tracking device to be put in her. i thin what u r trying to do is a great thing and i would definetly suppor u in any way. and forhe mother who said they can just have itremved when they come to age, dont tell them they have it in smarty. good luck. and contact me if it ever actually happens.
I don’t think this is a good idea. Common sence tells me that given the street smarts that people who do the kinds of things like abduct children and of like have they will figure out a way around this. You are causing pain by implanting these things and what kind of pain will a child be in for it to be removed, broken, or disabled by a person who doesn’t care what they are doing. BAD IDEA. And how rude to invade a childs person like that.