RIP and children (It's all Ross Anderson's Fault)

[Ian G Batten]

So, I'm lying in bed at half six o'clock on Sunday morning, reading
while steeling myself for watching the Malaysian Grand Prix in a cold
front room.  My daughter, five, who wakes early and is turning into a
bit of a race fan comes in and crawls into bed with us.  She looks at
what I am reading: Ross' security engineering book.  ``I can read some
of those words.  Radio.  Links.  What's that one with the C at the
top?''  ``Crytography''.  ``What does that mean?''

One swift discourse on simple caeser-type ciphers and she's decided her
list of names to invite to her soon-come birthday party would be best
written with the first, last and middle letters stepped on one, with the
other letters left alone.  She has some trouble spelling some of her
friends' names anyway.  My wife, trying to write the invitations later
in the day, is Not Amused.

But I'm set to thinking on the implications of children under ten
holding crypto keys.  Given my children are, as one would probably
expect of the children of geeks, reasonably adept with computers, this
new interest in crypto might make for an interesting RIP case: what
happens if the encryption keys are held by someone who is below the age
of criminal responsibility?  Should I have a household signing key which
my daughter holds, and then if required have _her_ issue a revocation
certificate explaining we've had all our keys seized by the fuzz?

ian