Chip your kids

Japan has seen several high-profile attacks on children in or around schools recently, and there's a natural trend toward keeping closer tabs on their movements. The latest system aimed at assuaging parental fears involves having kids swipe a school ID card containing an IC tag over a reader at the school gate: doing so sends a mail to a parent's cellphone to confirm they've arrived (presumably they'll have to have someone standing over the reader to prevent wayward pupils being swiped in by their friends). As a report goes to the homeroom teacher if someone hasn't checked in, the process of discovering no-shows and starting the process of finding them should be speeded up. The future doesn't look much fun for kids if they have to be chipped and tracked everywhere they go, though.

[Via the Nikkei Shimbun (Japanese)]