You can tour the Scottish Parliament and Westminster by simply walking through a metal detector.

But today as the Highland News exclusively reveals, children as young as five are having to give up their fingerprints in order to borrow library books from their school.

The issue of using biometric or fingerprint technology has been widely discussed and is no doubt a sensitive issue.

This week, we have a politician, a parent and a civil liberties group all unhappy that Drakies Primary School is using the Junior Librarian biometric system. They claim it is an infringement of their human rights and the politician queries whether it is OK to encourage primary school children to regard it as normal to have this kind of data taken from them and used routinely.

Other concerns are that the information stored could be used by other authorities such as the police, a little far-fetched when we are talking about a Highland school with no more than 236 pupils?

Whatever happened to the good old days of the library card? How complex or more time consuming can it be to swipe or scan a card in place of scanning a child's thumb?

Of course, one of the arguments for the biometric technology is that a child will always have his or her thumb firmly attached to their body, whereas a pupil is quite capable of leaving their library card at home.

This is true, but what about teaching them responsibility? If they can't borrow a library book because they have forgotten their card and therefore they can't do their homework or enjoy their read, then they have to learn to deal with the consequences.

But one issue which some might say is more of a concern is the sheer cost of the equipment.

Many readers will have seen the stories covered in the Highland News about the state of our local schools crumbling around our children's ears. Is spending £1,000 on this controversial piece of equipment really the best way to be spending school funds?

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