Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
News
Original poster

Would you Microchip your child?

141 replies

clumsymum · 15/05/2007 14:09

this article in the Times today points out that it is technically possible.

But is this really where we want to go?

OP posts:
mumof2monsters · 15/05/2007 14:53

Gobbledigook I agree with you as a parent I too am not willing to take any risks with my kids. You always think it will never happen to me, my kids are safe but I am sure the McCanns thought this and Sara Payne thought this about little Sarah and there are many other cases.
I am sure that if microchipping was ever an option it would hopefully be researched to risks both physical and psychological.
My kids are my world and I would do whatever it takes to protect them. There are many sickos out there.
Sorry to rant but just feel strongly about protecting my children given the portugal situation

Original poster
clumsymum · 15/05/2007 14:53

Gobble

Really, you are MUCH MUCH more likely to win the lottery than your child be abducted. It is INCREDIBLY rare.

TBH, I'd be more worried about my child contracting MRSA from the implant, than about abduction.

OP posts:
morningpaper · 15/05/2007 14:54

Hmmm why is my husband in Sainsbury's when he's supposed to be at work?

It would save all those threads

pesme · 15/05/2007 14:54

lol unquietdad.

Gobbledigook · 15/05/2007 14:54

Like I said, there is risk everywhere but some of it is avoidable and some of it isn't.

There's not much choice about using stairs but there is choice about leaving your children unattended.

morningpaper · 15/05/2007 14:55

Wanting to protect your child is good nailpolish

Having a completely unrealistic idea of what is safe is not good

This kind of thing reminds me of people who insure themselves against alien abduction

GiantSquirrelSpotter · 15/05/2007 14:56

"protect their child"?

What about the health implications of a microchip?

Kevin Warwick is a guinea-pig. He's a grown man who chooses to have a microchip because he's enthusiastic about the technology. If he gets some horrible illness twenty years down the line, that's hhis choice, he knows it's a possibility and he's willing to take the risk.

Personally, I wouldn't be willing to have my DC's used as guinea pigs.

Gobbledigook · 15/05/2007 14:56

I don't think it's unrealistic to think that leaving small children unattended is not safe.

nailpolish · 15/05/2007 14:57

my 4.5yr old plays out in the culdesac on her bike
up and down, i even let her cross the road on her own to the playpark

i have no idea if htis is the right thing to do or not

i want to let her go out but i dont

Original poster
clumsymum · 15/05/2007 14:57

Morningpaper,

No we would get more of those threads, because we would be more aware that our dh's were not where they should be.

The device would only tell you where, not why

OP posts:
noddyholder · 15/05/2007 14:57

never

nailpolish · 15/05/2007 14:57

ps i can see the playpark from the house

expatinscotland · 15/05/2007 14:57

What GDG said.

morningpaper · 15/05/2007 14:57

Gobbledigook I would agree with you

GiantSquirrelSpotter · 15/05/2007 14:58

But if you never leave your child unsupervised, why do you need a microchip?

And when would you remove it? At what age?

SueBaroo · 15/05/2007 14:58

Yeah, but not micro-chipping them is not putting them at risk. The risks arise from the other choices you make, not whether you might be able to find them in the unlikely event of an abduction, surely?

I mean, where do you draw the line? My kids are in my care 24/7, but the worst could still happen. Microchipping them won't have the slightest effect on that.

nailpolish · 15/05/2007 14:59

GDG

your statement is making my head explode

please rephrase

seb1 · 15/05/2007 14:59

No, I know all the nasties that go into a microchip.

GColdtimer · 15/05/2007 14:59

But what if your child was that one in however many that get abducted and you had passed over the opportunity getting something done that could have found them quickly?

My DH says Yes, I say maybe...

Original poster
clumsymum · 15/05/2007 15:01

And if they found in 10 years time that the implant causes cancer, then you would feel fine that you had had it done?

OP posts:
nailpolish · 15/05/2007 15:02

well everything causes cancer so thats a no-brainer

fannyannie · 15/05/2007 15:03

I wouldn't - surely if a microchip is removable someone that abducts your child could try find if the child had one and remove it?????

SueBaroo · 15/05/2007 15:03

If you are unfortunate event that your child is abducted, I'm quite sure you will find plenty to berate yourself about concerning what you did or didn't do.

You take all reasonable measures to protect your children, of course. I personally think that microchipping them goes beyond reasonable. I think it's an invasion of their rights, tbh. I know I wouldn't want to be chipped as an adult, so yes, I would have to ask when it would come out.

Stigaloid · 15/05/2007 15:17

I definitely wouldn't.

In The Times today there was a quote from Michelle Elliot, the director of the child protection charity Kidscape, who says, "we have 11 million children in the UK...for teh past 25 years between 5 and 7 children have been abducted and killed by a stranger each year, and that has not changed".

The likelihood of your child being taken and hurt is so small. Microchipping is just being hyped up by the current news reports. It's not fair on a child to take away his freedom and ability to enjoy independance due to media hysteria.

I'd hate to know i was chipped like a dog by my parents. I strongly disagree with a surveillance society. It would be the first step on a dark slippery slope in my opinion if people started being tagged from birth.

UnquietDad · 15/05/2007 16:01

Compare that statistic with the number of children killed or injured on Britain's roads last year - 3260, according to "What Car".