General Article Eight million UK children on secret database without parental consent

Topic Selected: Privacy
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The newly uncovered secret computer network, known as the ‘One System’, can apparently share children’s personal information across different agencies in the United Kingdom.

According to The Sunday Times, the database was created by Capita, which is a company specialising in IT systems. Details of the information collected by the system includes the child’s age, sex, examination results, bad behaviour including absenteeism, whether they have special needs and even how many minutes late they are to lessons.

This information can then reportedly be shared with various agencies, including the NHS, the police, charities and child protection units, all without parental knowledge or consent. It is apparently up to teachers to collect the data on all children, and not just those deemed to be a problem or at risk.

Nick Pickles from the privacy advocate group, Big Brother Watch, told the RT news channel, ‘While information is absolutely essential to protect children, you need to collect in...

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