Published in News

Germans want to spy on kids

by on15 June 2017


They are the new face of terror

The German government is increasingly worried about the rise of a new internet terrorist class – the child.

New plans to give authorities the right to look at private messages and fingerprint children as young as six are being drawn up, the interior minister said.

Ministers from central government and federal states said encrypted messaging services, such as WhatsApp and Signal, allow militants and criminals to evade traditional surveillance.

However the details seem to imply that kids who are six years old are masters of encryption and are secret terrorists.

The idea seems to have come from Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann, a Merkel ally whose south-eastern state is the entry point for many refugees fleeing war in the Middle East.

He said on June 3 it was important that security services to be allowed to check children.

God knows what a six year old’s email would tell German spooks. Most of the writing skills of kids that age are restricted to the “cat sat on the mat” and few are conducting terror campaigns from their brightly coloured laptops.

Needless to say this is not something that went down very well in Germany where the memories of spying in the Communist and Nazi run deep.

Social Democrat family affairs minister Katharina Barley said that children are victims of extremism and authorities should be protecting children, not spying on their friends.

Last modified on 15 June 2017
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