ELECTRONIC tracking devices could be implanted into convicted paedophiles under plans being considered by the government.

Microchips would be surgically fitted beneath the skin under local anaesthetic, enabling officials to follow abusers’ movements and monitor their heart rate and blood pressure.

The tagging technology is similar to that used to locate stolen cars. It works by using satellites or a mobile phone network to pinpoint the person on an electronic map via a signal from the implant.

Both public concern about paedophilia and the number of possible applications of the technology have grown in recent months.

Tracking technology has previously been considered for monitoring offenders of domestic violence and stalking. It could be used to establish whether an offender is approaching a former victim’s house or a high-risk area such as a school.

Tracker Network, the company that runs Britain’s largest stolen vehicle monitoring system, has been approached about paedophile monitoring and an American company has reportedly been asked to develop the software. Similar software that remotely monitors the bodily functions of astronauts has already been developed for Nasa.

In the US, the microchip maker Applied Digital Solutions says it has been inundated by demands to produce electronic implants that can be used to keep tabs on kidnap victims via satellite.

A British scientist recently disclosed that a number of parents had asked him to implant a tracking microchip under their daughters’ skin following the deaths of the 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Kevin Warwick, a cybernetics expert, said one girl, 11-year-old Danielle Duval, will have a device implanted in her arm within the next few months.

The Home Office minister Hilary Benn revealed the government’s plan to implant electronic tags into convicted paedophiles in a letter to the Labour MP Andrew Mackinlay.

“The (Home Office’s) electronic monitoring team is . . . looking actively at the possibilities for using tracking technology to monitor offenders’ whereabouts as they move from one place to another,” he wrote.

New legislation would have to be passed to require offenders to be surgically fitted with the tags.

The plan has alarmed civil liberties campaigners. John Wadham,the director of Liberty, said he was concerned that the technology’s application could be widened to cover other marginalised groups, such as asylum seekers.

“Where will this end? Liberty’s 70-year history has shown that restrictions on human rights are first brought in to deal with the bad, the wicked and the marginalised, but, in the absence of proper regulations such as privacy laws, are almost always extended to include other categories (of people),” he said.

Separately, the Home Office is thought to be about to radically extend the definition of paedophilia.

The rules governing the paedophile register are also set to be tightened. Abusers will be required to notify the police within three days of moving home and to make an annual visit to their local police station. The new measures will form part of a wide-ranging sexual offences bill.

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