China is still innovating in digital surveillance. After brain wave sensors, connected cameras connected to facial recognition software, or even the electronic chip system integrated into the collar of students’ shirts to monitor their actions and gestures, in the Middle Kingdom, establishments primary and secondary schools distribute “smart pens” that track when a student starts work, for how long and what they have written. Also, Chinese media have sounded the alarm about this new form of “surveillance”, reports Courrier international.
A measure already widespread in certain areas of Shanghai and the provinces of Yunnan, which will be generalized at the end of August in Chinese schools. Equipped with a mini-camera, these connected pens film the children’s note taking, sent in real time to the teachers. When the student starts writing, the teacher receives a notification that he is getting to work. A monitoring tool that measures both the student’s working time and the time taken to answer a question, data from which statistics on their performance can then be established.
“No child wants to be watched while they study”
According to the opinion of the Chinese Ministry of Education, this device helps the ” strengthening homework management in schools. Teachers must fully correct all assignments (…) and encourage the scientific use of computer tools for the analysis and diagnosis of assignments ».
On the Internet, a student confides in a post: “ I’m being watched (…) I’ve lost the joy of summer vacation “, before retracting and having to apologize to his teacher. ” No child wants to be watched while they study “, deplores Chengdu Shangbao, newspaper of Sichuan (province of the south-west of China). Several Chinese media have thus alerted to a new form of surveillance.
As it is possible to see since the outbreak of the Covid-19 crisis, the communist country has indeed made a specialty of implementing surveillance measures of all kinds in the smallest aspects of the daily life of the Chinese.
Brainwave sensors to monitor students’ concentration
As the Wall Street Journal reports, a number “ croissant “of classrooms in China are equipped with cameras” smart ” and of ” brain wave trackers “. Students who lack concentration in class are thus identified using artificial intelligence.
For nearly a year, schoolchildren in Jinhua Xiaoshun, in eastern China, wore strange headband-shaped devices to be placed on their foreheads, like a headband, which has three electrodes: one is positioned on the forehead and two others behind the ears. These sensors are supposed to detect in real time the electrical signals emitted by the brain, which would make it possible to measure the degree of concentration or relaxation of a person.
Data on the electrical activity of the student’s brain is collected and then transmitted to the class teacher’s computer from which software generates ” alerts ” on the “ attention level of each child, and delivers a ” rapport analysis at the end of each lesson, which is also sent to parents.
But at the beginning of November 2019, the controversy caused by this experiment finally pushed the school of Jinhua Xiaoshun to put an end to it. On social networks, many Internet users have thrashed the liberticidal and anxiety-provoking nature of this device, the effectiveness of which has not been scientifically proven.
Parents of students and defenders of individual freedoms also feared a lack of transparency in the collection and use of the data transmitted by this system. A government research project uses them to analyze the physical and psychological health of children, as well as their learning.
In addition to these brain wave trackers, other new technologies have already invaded Chinese classrooms: connected cameras linked to facial recognition software monitor students’ movements, detecting for example whether they are reading or to use their telephone, but also electronic chips.
Microchips to monitor students’ movements in real time
« It’s a digital surveillance system that could well become the norm in Chinese schools “, reported the Point in September 2021. A primary school in the city of Zhuhai, in the south-east of China, had then launched its system of electronic chip inserted in the collar of the shirt of the pupils with a view, in particular, to collect information about students’ trajectory or the time they spend in different areas of the school.
« This technology is the result of joint research with an information technology company, after studying some flaws in school management “, explained Yan Wengui, the director of the school, not without pride.
« Fenghuang Elementary School students can access the school without having to scan their card or face [via un système de reconnaissance faciale] Zhuhai Tequ Bao, Zhuhai City Newspaper, announces enthusiastically on Wechat Zhuhai. And to clarify: Identification sensors installed at the entrance of the school detect the chip embedded in the collar of the school uniform when the student enters the building.
But on Weibo, another dominant social network in China, a surfer fumed, evoking a ” shame and comparing the device to the electronic wristbands reserved for delinquents and criminals. ” This real-time monitoring is equivalent to electronic bracelets for prisoners “, also criticizes an article by Aboluo Wang, a Sino-American news site.