"Microchips for kids are like barcodes... people will get used to them."

It’s the latest in the trend of ‘treating children like puppies’, and reports now say the micro-chipping of children will happen “sooner rather than later”.

Microchip technology is being tested in the military and it won’t be long till these little radio-frequency identification transponders (the size of a grain of rice) will be available for implantation in children, according to an NBC News report.

The microchips will  monitor their whereabouts, so they are never ‘lost’. Just like when your neighbour finds your kitten, and takes it to the vet and the vet scans its microchip to locate you, the owner – just like that, BUT FOR CHILDREN.

via GIPHY

The report featured mother-of-three Steffany Rodroguez-Neely, who briefly lost her daughter at the supermarket – an experience every mother would attest is terrifying.

Terrifying, yes. But microchip-worthy?

“[It’s] every parent’s nightmare when you can’t find your child,” Rodroguez-Neely told NBN News. “If it’ll save my kid, there’s no stuff that’s too extreme. Micro-chipping would be an extra layer of protection, if something bad does happen.”

Other mums are not so sure.

“You’re putting a battery in your kid, you’re putting a chip in your kid. And, where does it stop?” another mum, Kerri Levey, told the show. “Where? It’s going too far. This is a child we’re talking about.”

(Levey has a point, but in most cases, microchips don’t require batteries – so she was doing well until then).

via GIPHY

The debate, of course, wouldn’t be complete without input from a trusty electronics expert.

“When barcodes first came out in the late 1960s, people were appalled. They were wary of them and did not understand the concept. Today, it is so commonplace, we don’t even notice it. A microchip would work much in the same way,” expert Stuart Lipoff says. “It’s not a matter of if it will happen, but when.”

He’s right, today people don’t notice barcodes … maybe because barcodes are mostly used to track prices, not locations.

Barcodes are also unlikely to be used to provide intelligence about the location and movements (buying habits maybe) of human beings. Which is very real possibility if human microchips become “commonplace”.

Finally, no one’s planning to stick barcodes in the arms of children. No matter how expensive they may seem.

Watch next: Do mothers actually have a favourite child?