LONDON (WithinTheLaw) - Arms manufacturers and intelligence organisations which have been involved in human rights abuses are being given access to children without the knowledge of their parents. That’s according to a report from Declassified UK who have found evidence of a secretive scheme which is inviting some of the world’s most unethical companies into our schools.
The report found that arms manufacturers such as BAE Systems had been allowed to run training workshops with children that included teaching them how to build drones or check their classmates’ internet connections.
A programme called the Cyber Schools Hub is operating at more than 40 schools around GCHQ’s base in Gloucestershire and may be rolled out across the country. It is supposed to promote cybersecurity to children as young as four but programme literature suggests GCHQ is aggressively encouraging arms manufacturers to enter the schools.
The taxpayer is footing the bill for children to attend work experience at Lockheed Martin which has been awarded ‘associate’ status within the programme. As part of their experience, children might even get to see how the company made the Mark 82 bomb which Saudi Arabia used to attack a school bus in Yemen.
All in all, a host of companies from Lockheed Martin to BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman Raytheon are being invited to connect with children in various education projects.
Too close for comfort
The more you look at this, the more suspicious it gets. According to the report, one coding club was staffed by GCHQ officers. A freedom of information request sent by Declassified to a school was blocked for national security reasons by its IT teacher. The article also claims that a joint tag team event at one school was intended to gain access to a pupil who had been reported to the authorities by his school for being ‘very talented’ and that ‘teachers were worried he may be about to cross the line with his online cyber activities.’ There is no evidence that he or his classmates were made aware that they were participating in an event under false pretenses.
Other sessions included helping children to build drones and eavesdrop on someone else’s computer screen. It paints a dystopian vision of a world in which children are groomed to make deadly weapons and to inform on their own friends.
Why is this an issue?
This is, on the surface, a fairly innocuous work experience programme, but parents should have cause for concern for a number of reasons. Revelations by Edward Snowden show the sinister role GCHQ has played in intercepting vast quantities of digital communications including emails, social media posts, and private messages on social network sites.
The so-called Tempora Programme works by intercepting most fiber optic communications coming out of domestic homes and checking emails, social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter. That means the chances are GCHQ have a fairly good idea about what emails you’ve sent, what you’ve been buying on Amazon, what social media networks you use, your friends and your political opinions.
Wall of silence
We’ve approached a number of organisations for comment. So far, there has been nothing. It’s particularly disappointing that both the education secretary Gavin Williamson and the shadow education secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey have declined to comment. Long Bailey’s failure to take a stand is particularly depressing as she has been a long opponent of the war in Yemen.
To see schools providing many of the companies responsible for the largest humanitarian crisis on this planet with a direct line to our children should be a concern for everyone. It’s exactly the kind of thing that a responsible opposition party would normally be expected to jump on.
(Written by Tom Cropper, Edited by Klaudia Fior)