"Tips for fingerprinting children"

This has to be seen to be believed. This page was online from November 2001 until September 14th 2006 when all trace of it suddenly disappeared, less than 12 hours after Leave Them Kids Alone website brought it to public attention. LTKA's site details how the council have made no comment on this - what could they say! Thanks to the Internet Archive it is still available online.

I personally find the last sentance appalling.

"You may need to guide the thumb to the scanner" This 'advice' was on Dudley Council's website for nearly 5 years.

I find the mental image of a teacher physically guiding a childs hand to a fingerprint scanner very disturbing. What would the psychological effect of this have on a young child? It would be difficult to imagine a dissenting 16 year old's thumb being guided to a scanner. Older children are more aware of their rights and in some cases high school students have refused to have their biometrics used for access to books, lunches and computers. Younger children are not aware of their rights and are more bidable, is this where the above 'advice' is applicable?

Thank goodness Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council have withdrawn it, buts lets face it, it shouldn't have been there in the first place.

Surely this is advert enough to urgently review what exactly is happening in schools with biometric technology.