China Now Tracking Children With "Smart" Tech Uniforms

If there is any country on Earth that is most emblematic of the rising governance model that is Technocracy, it is China.  The many pieces to this structure have included much of what we see emerging in the U.S. with pervasive surveillance, biometrics and a notion of protecting the public by instituting pre-crime algorithms in police departments and travel. 

So, in many ways, China is the very large canary in the coal mine for anyone who wishes to attempt to slow the rapidity of our slide down the slippery slope toward scientific totalitarianism.

As I covered previously, China put the world on notice back in April that it was declaring full ownership over the brains of its workers and military with the imposition of brain-reading sensors in their respective hats, caps and helmets in order to determine efficiency and safety patterns, as well as general mental state.

Concealed in regular safety helmets or uniform hats, these lightweight, wireless sensors constantly monitor the wearer's brainwaves and stream the data to computers that use artificial intelligence algorithms to detect emotional spikes such as depression, anxiety or rage.

The technology is in widespread use around the world but China has applied it on an unprecedented scale in factories, public transport, state-owned companies and the military to increase the competitiveness of its manufacturing industry and to maintain social stability.

The Chinese government acknowledges that workers expressed initial concern over the perception that they were having their minds read, but after some acclimation "they got used to the device. It looked and felt just like a safety helmet. They wore it all day at work." Future plans include use for flight operators in airline cockpits, but it "means the pilots may need to sacrifice some of their privacy for the sake of public safety."

In the meantime, a new initiative is paving the way for training the next generation that this type of surveillance is completely normal: school uniforms equipped with tracking chips to supposedly fight truancy. Here we can see an integration of the range of surveillance tech that is at the disposal of technocrats everywhere, including the United States. 

The uniforms use chips to monitor the location of students and can record their exit and entry into school, according to the tech firm behind the tracking devices.

"When students enter the school, the smart uniforms help take a photo or video of them," explained principal Ran Ruxiang, whose elementary school in Guizhou province started rolling out smart uniforms last November.

If students walk out of the school without permission, an automatic voice alarm will activate, the report said.

Paired with facial recognition devices installed on school doors, the smart uniforms can also sense if students swap uniforms.

"We choose not to check the accurate location of students after school, but when the student is missing and skipping classes, the uniforms help locate them," Guizhou province school principal Lin Zongwu told the Global Times.

Facial recognition on doors in schools already has been implemented in the U.S., like this one in Seattle.  And people are beginning to embrace this technology on their own homes with Amazon's facial recognition doorbell and a host of other similar gadgets.

The most insidious part of what is taking shape in China and across the world with the rise of smart tech surveillance and tracking is that children, having grown up without a reference point for any semblance of self-ownership, will now form a much easier population to oppress in the future.  

Originally published at Activist Post - reposted with permission.