Girl to be chipped with tracking device – bad taste hysteria?

According to The Guardian, Professor Kevin Warwick of the University of Reading’s Department of Cybernetics said the device will be implanted in the arm of Danielle Duval. The Guardian writes: “The miniature chip will apparently send a signal via a mobile phone network to a computer, which will be able to pinpoint her location on an electronic map.”

Professor Warwick acknowledged that he has still to find a means of recharging the chip’s battery and it has not be decided whether or not the chip’s emitter should be active all the time or be activated only in an emergency. However, he told The Guardian that he does expect Danielle to be fitted with the chip "in the next few months," under local anaesthetic. The Times reports that six other mothers contacted Professor Warwick last night to request the treatment for their children.

Danielle said, “I would feel so much safer knowing that mum and dad could find me in an emergency.” Her parents, Wendy and Paul Duval, said they hoped that the chip would also be fitted to Danielle’s younger sister, Amy, 7, but not until she is old enough to understand it.

News site The Register raises the concern that the Duvals and the media may not understand the technology either:

"An 'invisible' device that handles both GPS and mobile phone communications, and doesn't need its batteries changing every five seconds would clearly make [Professor Warwick] a large fortune, if it existed. Which manifestly it doesn't."

The Register’s excellent critique of the coverage concludes that it is “complete hokum and under the circumstances pernicious.”