I received an e-mail from David Bond back in September of 2008 when he was researching the documentary film 'Erasing David'. The film is an investigation into the amount and nature of the data held about individuals by government and all sorts of other sources, and his plan (as it unfold in the film) is to try to 'disappear' from the system for as long as he can while some specially hired private detectives will attempt to track him down.
I had written to the local paper about the fingerprint registration scheme that M's school were intending to introduce and he had tracked me down (via the internet, see how easy it is) to see if we would be interested in being involved in the film. So he came to our house and interviewed M and myself about the whole fingerprint thing, though he was really lovely and interested and we ended up talking about home education and all sorts of other stuff too, and about the film and his interests in 'personal data' issues. And we had a 'small world' moment as he had also interviewed Terri Dowty at ARCH (Action on Rights for Children) who I know from being involved in EO (Education Otherwise).
I had forgotten all about the film it was so long ago and then Dunk spotted it on telly last night (and will be available to watch on 4OD)
M and I didn't make it onto the small screen, our little interview was edited out, though they did show the interview with Mrs France at school. However we did get a credit at the end for participating in David's research so we felt like we had been part of something very interesting.He has his own website here (but it is not responding at the moment), you can see a little intro clip here on Youtube and a very interesting article on Spiked here.
Martine, that is so cool! You sound like just the kind of mother I hope to be one day--I admire you so much for standing up to the fingerprint thing, which IS creepy and invasive.
ReplyDeleteHow cool for you to be mentioned in the credits for a film!
Congrats!!
Fascinating - I think that it is atsonishing how much data is stored about each of us -
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to you Martine
Hannah
Good for you for standing up to this! I've been reading about Erasing David recently, and it sounds fascinating.
ReplyDeleteMartine we complained to our son's school about exactly the same thing last year. We were assured that in a school of 1500, we and one other set of parents were the only ones who had raised concerns. Our area of m/c, is noted for its high number of bohos and bolshy characters, so I said I found this hard to believe. Anyhoo unidentified parents contacted the local paper (!) and it made front page news for one week. The overpriced big brother system was introduced, surprise surprise, but our son (and probably other kids) are not part of it. Sorry you didn't get to feature in the programme, well done for voicing your concerns. Power to the People!!
ReplyDeleteYes, i was told I was the only person objecting. M is not in school any more so I don't know how it has worked out long term but the kids liked to subvert it by using the wrong finger and stuff like that, the scanners were very vulnerable to being scratched too. Then the Head went on to re-introduce blazers and ties, so we are well out of it now:-)
ReplyDeletethanks everyone for visiting
martine
this sounds really interesting - just wandered over and put it in my saved Q @ netflix
ReplyDeletethanks for stopping by my blog - glad you enjoyed the CSN video :)