http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/03/the_continuing.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/mar/16/youthjustice.childrenOne of the grand ideas in the UK, which is basically my current model for social engineering a surveillance society, was to DNA sample "bad children". Of course, that would cause a whole bunch of problems if you only marked the five year olds that you THOUGHT were going to commit a crime when they were an adult. So, the answer? DNA sample ALL of the children. Yep. The smartest idea is to basically make sure we can track children through adulthood, just in case they commit a crime.
Now, as a young child, my mother did the child fingerprinting thing, which they made a game out of it, so I could get my fingerprints on file in case something went wrong. I remember that day very clearly, not because I got free toys for going from station to station, getting fingerprinted in each one, but because they wouldn't take no for an answer.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/01/walt-disney-world-to-start-fingerprinting-everyone/http://newsinitiative.org/story/2006/09/01/walt_disney_world_the_governmentsThat brought up an article I read previously. Disney World is fingerprinting all of its customers, i.e. visitors. The claim is to prevent fraud, but what stops them from keeping tracking of it through the years, so know how often you visit and where?
But, more importantly, it gets children used to the idea of being fingerprinted all the time. It gets them used to accepting being monitored in that way, which our own parent's parents would have screamed bloody murder about it.
When I was younger, about ten years ago, I read an essay that explained how to get someone used to changes in privacy. It wasn't a fast one, ten or twenty years to really do it right. You need at least twenty to convince society that a national ID card was a good idea. And, the best place to start, with those who can't defend themselves: children, prisoners, and pets.
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/28/ted-2008-philip-zimb.htmlIt's interesting how people can be changed with perceptions, this is a great example of that famous experiement where a professor had a bunch of students playing police and a bunch playing prisoners and watched how BOTH sides responded to their perception of power.
