Can future verification programs be trusted to be safe?
Photo: SMK

Yet another breach of sensitive information.

CHILD DATA BREACH

Queensland Child Safety Minister Amanda Camm will launch an audit into what she described as a “critical IT failure”, potentially affecting the ability of staff to act on time-sensitive risks to vulnerable children.

At a media conference in Brisbane on Saturday morning, Camm revealed issues with a long-awaited IT system upgrade, dubbed Unify, which her department transitioned to in April.

The issue has resulted in frontline child protection staff not being able to access timely and accurate information, including incidents reports and personal details, as well as reporting functions delayed that could potentially put 16 thousand vulnerable children at risk.

“This bungled IT program has resulted in frontline staff not being able to access timely and accurate information,” she said, adding that this had affected information sharing with other agencies, as well as reporting functions

“My major concern, as the minister for child safety, is a system failure of this type could result in the death of a child”.

The breach will affect the ability to meet statutory obligations in the way data is reported.

Child Safety Minister, Laura Gerber, refused to say if she warned colleagues about the failures prior to the revelations being uncovered, raising further concerns.

Camm said the Department would order an external audit of the $183 million system – initiated by the former government – by Monday.

The work is expected to take up to two months, in typical government fashion.

This is yet another example of how sensitive data is not safe in the modern world.

And to think, we are about to enter into an environment where children and adults will be required to scan their faces as part of a pseudo-Digital ID age verification program.

Yet, they can’t even protect the data of children in state-based department systems.

The more data we give away to governments and corporations, the more vulnerable we become as a functioning society.

REALLY ABOUT SAFETY?

They repeatedly tell us about all of these pushes are for our ‘safety and security’, yet time and time again, the people end up more at risk than they were before.

Take for example the upcoming social media ban for under 16s:

We know that social media is an inherent problem for young individuals, with the platforms fundamentally altering multiple generations already.

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But here is the thing: Just because social media dangers for children are a real and pressing issue, the answer is certainly not to introduce mass biometric tracking as a result.

Already, from the devices they are using, to the websites they are visiting, most of the internet is not a safe place for the data of children to be logged.

Or anybody for that matter, let along kids.

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Even systems developed by the government themselves are not safe, as is evident with continued digitisation of classrooms and related programs surrounding them.

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We know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that personal data is not guaranteed to be safe in the modern age with any provider, institution, or company – no matter how big they are.

So why does the government think this is a good ‘solution’ to the problems?

We have seen countless examples in recent years of just how vulnerable online data is, with breaches, hacks, malfunctions and more becoming commonplace in society.

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How are they claiming to ‘protect’ children by introducing systems that are fundamentally susceptible to risk? Does that make any sense to you?

Is it really worth protecting kids from the dangers of social media by exposing their sensitive biometric data to potential hacks and breaches?

I would argue it isn’t at all.

If parents truly want to protect their kids, homebirthing and homeschooling are two of the most effective ways to do so – disconnecting them from the harms of outside influence.

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They should also encourage their kids to keep away from smartphones by developing healthy alternative activities to do – such as drawing, writing or colouring on paper.

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At the end of the day, we all know this isn’t about children to begin with – it is about introducing Digital ID by stealth on the majority of Australian citizens.

But even by their own official story, nobody should believe this type of system will make children safer online.

For what they may lose in content exposure, they will regain tenfold in potential for sensitive data to be exposed – and I personally do not see that as a fair trade.

That’s for those who even comply with it, for which most young Australians will probably find ways around it like they have so far in the U.K.

The government does not care about your children, and even if they did, social media age verification is not the way to show it.

Another reason this agenda must be resisted at all costs.