{"id":242,"date":"2010-11-15T09:35:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-15T14:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.m2sys.com\/blog\/?p=242"},"modified":"2022-06-22T01:10:42","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T05:10:42","slug":"biometrics-as-a-tool-to-help-suppress-bullying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.m2sys.com\/blog\/others\/biometrics-as-a-tool-to-help-suppress-bullying\/","title":{"rendered":"Biometrics As A Tool To Help Suppress Bullying"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A Serious Issue<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is an epidemic occurring in our country within the school system that is jeopardizing the development of our youth, undermining their confidence and courage and scarring their minds.\u00a0 It\u2019s bullying<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 Although bullying has been around for a long time, only recently has the subject garnered increased national attention as it was brought to light that a staggering number of students are taking their own lives and\/or developing severe mental and social handicaps due to excessive bullying by others.\u00a0\u00a0 According to the NBC News \u201cThe More You Know\u201d<\/strong> Web site, \u201cStudies show that between 15 \u2013 25% of U.S. Students are bullied with some frequency while 15 \u2013 20% report that they bully others with some frequency.\u00a0 As many as 60,000 students stay home from school on any given day because they are afraid of being bullied.\u201d\u00a0 These are staggering numbers, almost unbelievable.<\/p>\n

The data on the NBC site goes on to say that \u201cChildren and youth who are bullied are more likely than other children to be depressed, lonely, anxious; have low self-esteem, feel unwell, and think about suicide. And young people who bully are more likely than those who don’t bully to skip or drop out of school, vandalize property, smoke, drink alcohol, and get into fights. Sixty percent of boys who were bullies in middle school had at least one criminal conviction by the age of 24.\u201d\u00a0 Bullying is a serious issue in our society and needs a remedy to stop it from occurring.<\/p>\n

A Piecemeal Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ask any expert on child bullying and they will probably tell you that there isn\u2019t one definitive way for society to address the problem.\u00a0 Instead, the problem must be addressed by instituting a multi-faceted, targeted approach that includes incorporating tools and resources that empower teachers, parents and other students to use in order to prevent a child from growing up to be a bully in the first place.\u00a0 It is also important to look to technology as a means to assist with the prevention of bullying in schools, currently recognizing that there are proactive steps that schools can take to eliminate the motivations to bully and quell the channels for its growth.<\/p>\n

Biometric Technology Is A Piece Of The Puzzle<\/strong><\/p>\n

So you may be wondering to yourself\u2026what does biometrics have to do with helping to stop bullying?\u00a0 You may or may not know this but biometric technology<\/strong><\/a> is increasingly being used in schools throughout the country as part of their lunch line point of service software to institute a foolproof way of positively identifying students and accurately keeping track of their purchases.\u00a0 In a recent blog post<\/strong><\/a> about this subject, we detailed the spread of this technology and offered some insight on the science behind it.<\/p>\n

Recently, we asked some of the school lunch line Integrators<\/strong><\/a> that we partner with to provide us with some feedback on some of the reasons that schools adopt biometric technology for their lunch lines.\u00a0 Each time we posed the question, one of the top three reasons to incorporate biometric technology was preventing students from being bullied either to steal their barcode cards\/PIN\u2019s or harass a student who had forgotten his card or PIN while standing in line.<\/p>\n