Forest Hill creche fingerprints parents

Thursday, 23 April 2009

By John Hugill

A NURSERY will fingerprint all parents and staff entering its building.

Pitta Patta Day Nursery in St German’s Road, Forest Hill, has installed a security system where all parents and staff must give their personal print to enter the building.

Nursery director Jacqueline Hussein said: “It will really help give all the parents total peace of mind leaving their children here during the day.

“The system will allow all staff and parents to enter the building by using their fingerprint, so they will have easy access to the building.

“A lot of the children have a sleep in the afternoon and before we had this system the doorbell was constantly ringing and waking the children up.

"Now parents and staff can enter the building themselves.”

The system, installed by nursery security specialists NurseryCam, will hold all parents and staff on a database.

Before children join the nursery, which caters for children aged three months to five years, parents will be asked to place their thumb or finger on an electronic scanner.

This print will be stored on a computer and a numerical pattern attached to it.

Managing director of NurseryCam, Dr Melissa Kao, said: “When people think of fingerprint identification they think of James Bond films.

“This proves that state-of-the-art technology is available to everyday services too.”

The system was installed on April 1 and will also help prevent children from wandering out of the building.

Is this a good idea, or a security step too far?

Have your say by filling in the comment form below, or vote in our online poll to the right of the page.

Email: john.hugill@slp.co.uk

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5 comments on this news item

Posted by : angela ella smith, forest hill | Friday 20/Nov/2009 | Report this comment

This sounds like a terrible idea to me, I want to leave my child in the hands of responsible adults that keep an eye on her and security. I do not want the staff to become laid back and relaxed because of this new gadget.

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Posted by : metron rosolove, south london, brockley | Wednesday 20/May/2009 | Report this comment

do the children get fingerprinted or the parents? So what happens if a child gets out when another childs parent has got onto the premises?? shouldnt somebody still be operating this system? Seems as though there are some flaws which havent been looked into especially when protecting children.

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Posted by : B Hall, London | Monday 27/Apr/2009 | Report this comment

Fingerprinting kids is not so much James Bond as Dr Evil, ensnaring them at an early age into a web of tracking and surveillance. What are the risks that their fingerprints will be lost, stolen or hacked? What’s wrong with a nursery that can’t just have a secure gate with camera entry and person who recognises you and your kids?

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