Politicians children exempt from database

This article is a good example of diverting attention away from the important issues concerning the database. Or maybe it’s a great way to get the facts to a mainstream audience? Either way here’s the facts:

11 million children and their families in one database accessible to 300,000 or 400,000 officials.

Politicians children will be exempt. So, it’s OK for your children and my children.. but not for theirs.

Why?

Nobodies children should be included in this database. Nobodies.

Child database attacked over celebrity exclusions

David Batty

Government plans to exclude details of celebrities’ children from a new national child database were today seized on as evidence that the system may pose a safety risk to those it is supposed to protect.

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) today confirmed that the telephone numbers and addresses of children with famous parents would not be added to the £224m child index.

The contact details of children with violent parents will also be excluded from the database, a DfES spokesman added.

The index, due to be introduced in 2008, will link sensitive information about England’s 11 million children and their families in one database accessible to hundreds of thousands of officials.

Priscilla Alderson, professor of childhood studies, at the University of London Institute of Education, said the move to withdraw some children’s details from the database underlined fears about its security.

She added that excluding some information also raised questions about the fairness and effectiveness of the database.

The professor said: "Why should there be special arrangements for certain privileged children? Maybe politicians have been thinking, ‘Do I want my children’s details on this database,’ and decided to exempt themselves."

Robert Whelan, deputy director of the rightwing thinktank Civitas, said the move to exclude some information from the database showed the government had "no confidence" in the system.

He told the Telegraph: "There have been all these assurances it is secure, but how can we believe them now? I will tell you who will be off the register: the Blairs’ children. This is just politicians protecting their own.

"And how is the government going to define celebrity? It is a very fluid term, an assembly of high-profile clergy, disgraced politicians, topless models, pop singers and reality TV contestants."

Eileen Munro, reader in social policy at the London School of Economics, said the move showed the government recognised that child abusers and other criminals could use the database to extract "interesting information".

Dr Munro added that the restrictions on information about the child victims of domestic violence would probably involve denying violent parents who do not live with their children the right to access the database and thereby discovering their address.

The government devised the child index in response to the inquiry into the murder of Victoria Climbie, who was left to suffer despite having been seen by dozens of social workers, nurses, doctors and police officers.

Education minister Lord Adonis told the House of Lords earlier this year: "Between 300,000 and 400,000 users will access the index. Children who have a reason for not being traced, for example where there is a threat of domestic violence or where the child has celebrity status, will be able to have their details concealed."

A Department of Education and Skills spokesman said: "Lord Adonis was making a general statement that children of violent parents, while their name will still be on the register, may have their address removed, or a child of a parent with celebrity status will have their address removed. The police may decide it is appropriate."

Parliament’s information commissioner is due to publish a report on the child index next month. It is expected to warn that the database is causing serious concern and is possibly unlawful, with fears it breaches the Data Protection Act and does not comply with the European Convention on Human Rights.