British Celeb Kids Get Posh Database Treatment

England is set to create a database of all children in the country that will allow schools, doctors and social workers to centrally file warning flags – such as poor exam scores and parental depression – in order to trigger faster investigations of families.

While the system designers promise the system will be secure, evidently its not secure enough for celebrities – so details on their children will get special treatment in the database, according to this UK Telegraph story.

The database, to be introduced in 2008, follows the death of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie in 2000 as a result of abuse by her great aunt. Police, doctors and social workers had contact with Victoria as she suffered 128 injuries, but failed to discuss the case with one another.

Files are held by many bodies on the 11 million children in England and Wales, but the index will link this sensitive information in one database accessible to hundreds of thousands of officials.

Schools, doctors, the police and private-sector bodies will alert the system to such warning signals as low birth weight, poor exam results and a parent's depression or addiction. Two warning "flags" on a child's record may trigger an investigation.

Lord Adonis, the education minister, told the House of Lords: "Between 300,000 and 400,000 users will access the index. Children who have a reason for not being traced, for example where there is a threat of domestic violence or where the child has a celebrity status, will be able to have their details concealed."

Call it Big Mother, call it what you will, but you got to love the prospect of having Child Protective Services show up at your door because your kid could only label 20 out of 54 countries in Africa and you told your doctor that you were in the dumps recently because your company might be going out of business.

I, for one, am glad someone is thinking of the children, and even more glad they are thinking about David Beckham's children.

Photo: Moyix