How to Balance “Privacy Issues” and “Safety and Security”?

Case Study of Using RFID Tag Child Surveillance System

Abstract

　In Japan, kidnaps and murders of school children have become serious social concerns recently. A system was introduced using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips putting on school bags to monitor school children. This study investigated why this surveillance system was accepted to Japanese schools despite the concern over human monitoring and privacy invasion. A questionnaire survey was conducted for 576 pairs of parents and children of a private school. They have been using the system for one and a half year. The results showed that they (1) do not take serious of children’s privacy rights, (2) accept the system regardless of technical knowledge of RFID, (3) understand the system does not work for children’s actual safety but does work to keep parents’ peace of mind, (4) are influenced by mass media’s kidnapping news rather than actual crime data, and (5) demand more powerful system such as GPS function and CCTV to assure children’s actual safety. The paper concluded that the RFID system was accepted because it assured parents’ “peace of mind”; however it may generate risk for endangering children’s safety by data eavesdropping. Based on these results, it is recommended to discuss putting RFID chips on children to monitor them.