July 26, 1983

The voluntary fingerprinting of New York schoolchildren in a cityrun program was approved yesterday by a City Council committee as a way to help the police locate and identify children who have been kidnapped. Five members of the Council's Education Committee voted for the measure; three opposed it. The full Council is expected to vote on the bill, supported by Mayor Koch, in a month.

''We will never surrender Central Park to a small group of hoodlums.'' - Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern. (1:3.)

Over the last two years, the Danish and Swiss governments have exposed attempts by ostensible Soviet diplomats, actually K.G.B. officers, to influence or buy their way into groups trying to block deployment of new medium-range missiles in Western Europe. The cases are the best evidence offered by Western counterintelligence officers who believe that the Soviet espionage agency's highest priorities in Western Europe include attempts to exploit the disarmament movement. The counterintelligence experts are quick to acknowledge that there are hundreds of thousands of people who oppose nuclear weapons and are not dupes of the K.G.B., of the local Communist Party or of the Soviet Union in any way. Nowhere is the antinuclear movement regarded as a creation of Soviet policy. Rather, it is seen as an unusual target of opportunity for a full range of Soviet influence, extending beyond the K.G.B. A Reluctance to Prosecute But in trying to demonstrate the Soviet efforts convincingly, Western officials run into problems. One is a reluctance to prosecute citizens involved in the antinuclear movement - where the K.G.B. has been conspicuously present - because of risks of domestic political backlash.

Just three years after it ventured beyond toys to compete in the promising video game and home computer markets, Mattel Inc. said yesterday that its electronics division would lead the company to a pretax loss of ''significantly more than $100 million'' for the first half of 1983. Mattel will apparently be the third home electronics manufacturer to report second-quarter losses in excess of the worst predictions of industry analysts. On Thursday, Warner Communications reported that it had lost $283 million in the quarter because of poor performance in its Atari unit, and on Friday, Texas Instruments said it had lost $119 million in the same period. All three companies have been caught in a spiral of price cutting and sharply diminished sales in what a year ago was a booming home entertainment market, consisting mostly of video games and lowpriced computers.

By approving plans for a major increase in American military involvement in Central America, President Reagan appears to have narrowly defined the role of the commission he appointed last week to develop long-range policy options for the region. The increased activities include large-scale exercises beginning next month, preparation for a possible partial blockade of Nicaragua and plans for stepped-up covert operations against the Sandinista Government. Construction of a major American military base in Honduras is also planned. Administration officials acknowledge that these activities may deepen American involvement to such an extent that it would be difficult to revise policy even if the commission so recommends. But the officials, like the commission's chairman, former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, contend that most policy options will remain open when the panel completes its report, which will probably be early next year. Mr. Kissinger said today that he doubted anything ''irreversible'' would happen before then.