Would You Put a Tracking Device On Your Child? 610
Hugh Pickens writes "In 2007 businessman Russell Thornton lost his 3-year-old son at an amusement park. After a frantic 45-minute search, Thornton found the boy hiding in a play structure, but he was traumatized by the incident. It spurred him to build a device that would help other parents avoid that fate. Even though most statistics show that rates of violent crime against children have declined significantly over the last few decades, and that abductions are extremely rare, KJ Dell'Antonia writes that with the array of new gadgetry like Amber Alert and the Securus eZoom our children need never experience the fears that come with momentary separations, or the satisfaction of weathering them. 'You could argue that those of us who survived our childhoods of being occasionally lost, then found, are in the position of those who think car seats are overkill because they suffered no injury while bouncing around in the back of their uncle's pickup,' writes Dell'Antonia. 'Wouldn't a more powerful sense of security come from knowing your children were capable, and trusting in their ability to reach out for help at the moment when they realize they're not?'"
South Park did it first! (Score:2, Insightful)
Phhhh...Knock-offs.
A device that helps find lost kids (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean like, I don't know, a phone?
always with the children (Score:4, Insightful)
everything controversial can be made acceptable by saying it will protect the children. Well you know what? fuck the children, we dont need any more of them, and who cares if we lose a couple a year? thins out the population.
Re:Just buy them an iPhone with a strap (Score:5, Insightful)
It's really simple. I expect my kid will actually want a phone. Leaving location services on is a condition of getting to keep the phone. If I ever check on him and find it is disabled, or is reporting him to be somewhere he is not, then he loses the phone.
Who, exactly, was traumatized? (Score:2, Insightful)
No I would not. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I have one on him (Score:5, Insightful)
Right, and because they know about it - they can give their phone to a schoolmate who plans on going to school, while they head off to the local crack den.
You aren't describing a problem that technology can fix.
Re:No I would not. (Score:2, Insightful)
Same here. Wouldn't put one on my daughter. On my part it's a lesson in trust, on her part one in responsability. Seriously, when should they learn to be responsible, if not with small steps in child age?
Re:No I would not. (Score:4, Insightful)
The risk isn't worth the lost of privacy. If we teach our kids it's ok to be tracked anytime and always, it won't be long until all the kids wear government mandated trackingdevices. Which they get to keep to wear when they grown into adults. So no. It's not worth it, the risk is so small, don't do it. Keep an eye on your kids, make sure your kids know when to kick, bite and scream, but don't go tracking them with hardware. It's stupid.
A 3-year-old toddler doesn't have an expectation of privacy. It's not even desirable at that age.
Or not. (Score:4, Insightful)
Or you could, you know, be a better parent and keep closer tabs on your little precious bundle of joy. Or just not have them if you can't handle the responsibility.
But I'm sure I'll be modded into oblivion by said parents.
Personally (Score:4, Insightful)
I would have no issue whatsoever with putting a tracker on my child. For anyone under the age of 18, the parent is ultimately liable for their actions. If my kid gets in a car crash and it is their fault, I have to pay for it. If they break a store window for fun, I have to pay for it.
However, such a tool should not be a "why is my kid 5 minutes late?" type of tool. I would only use it in emergencies. For example, curfew is 11 pm and by 7am the next morning, they are still not home. Or my child walks home from school and usually gets home about 3pm, I call them multiple times and the school does not know where they are, I would use such a device. Also, I would love a feature that let me know when they left a certain radius or approached a certain area. Certain areas being the known criminal enterprise areas.
There is a difference between being "big brother" and using technology to enhance your parenting.
Re:A device that helps find lost kids (Score:5, Insightful)
It would be essentially a phone, only with no ability to place calls—just data+GPS.
I don't really see why this is remotely controversial. The point at which the kid starts to think about disabling it is the same point at which the kid is probably capable of making rational decisions. A three-year-old is not yet capable of doing that, and having a device like this would be a major anxiety-reducer for parents. It's not likely to make the kid hugely safer, but who cares?
Low tech solution (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't get me wrong - when he's older, I will not be a helicopter parent. But a three year old is just a baby that can run. Fast. And if he's anything like I was as a kid, I'm in for big trouble.
Re:South Park did it first! (Score:5, Insightful)
I have tracking devices on my children.
The device is made by Apple.
Re:I have one on him (Score:5, Insightful)
Right, and because they know about it - they can give their phone to a schoolmate who plans on going to school, while they head off to the local crack den.
You aren't describing a problem that technology can fix.
Exactly. But this is a problem that proper parenting can fix. My daughter is 13. I can track her phone. I also know her bank password and can see the transactions on her debit card. Nearly every weekend she goes to her BFF's house to "study", but the two of them really go hang out at the mall (according to both the phone and the bank transactions).
Here is what I have done about the situation: nothing. Lying and deceiving your parents is a normal part of growing up, and the point of spying on your kids is not to prevent them from being normal, but to protect them from real dangers. If you use your spying to keep your kid from occasionally skipping a class, then you will not be able to protect them from the crack dealers.
Trust you kids. Let them do stupid stuff, make mistakes, and grow up. Only intervene when they make the big mistakes.
Re:A device that helps find lost kids (Score:5, Insightful)
My friend's 2 year old can pick up his BlackBerry Playbook, turn it on, find the application she wants, launch it, and play with it. No issues whatsoever.
She doesn't yet understand the concept of a phone call I don't think, but I should think at this rate she'll have a pretty good grasp of that before long.
I mostly just stand there shaking my head that she can navigate it so easy, since when we were kids we had absolutely nothing of the sort. Kids are just exposed to this a lot earlier now. Hell, I was a whole lot older than she when we got Pong for crying out loud.
I'm pretty sure the average 2-4 year old can do stuff that 10 years ago I couldn't have even explained the concept to my mother, let alone how to use it.
Re:Just buy them an iPhone with a strap (Score:4, Insightful)
I think you underestimate the number of parents who see that as a win-win situation.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What are parents so paranoid? (Score:4, Insightful)
But still overall safety? I can't think it is any worse.
Yet, you rarely seem to see neighborhoods of kids, playing outside during the summer, skateboarding, kill the man with the ball in someones front yard...etc.
When I was a kid, especially in summer, I left the house early...and maybe came home for lunch (or ate at a friends house, we moved around who ate with where, everyone's mom and dad was everyone's mom and dad)...and didn't generally come home till dinner, and after dinner would run around till dark.
I heard the other day, about a lady who's kids were riding scooters in a neighborhood cul-de-sac, in front of their house, with fucking HELMETS on...the Mom got arrested because she was reported by neighbors (who had an ax to grind) that she had them out there unsupervised.
I mean..really? Not only was she actually there watching them....and got arrested even after explaining that...
Lord, is that the way it is today?
I guess my folks would have been picked up LONG ago by the law and me with child services for all I did unsupervised most days....sheesh.
When, exactly, did it become against the law for kids to be kids, and parents able (and willing) to let them?
No wonder all these little fuckwits seem so lost and dependent when you see them out finally on their own...(not everyone, but man, more than you saw in my day).
Re:No downside (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't see a downside to GPS tracking your kids. We use GPS on our smart phones to find directions to places in our direct neighborhood.
Right! Because, as we all know, GPS will always be available, electronic devices never malfunction (especially in damp, dirty environments such as forests and amusement parks!), and batteries never lose their charge, so why would anyone these days waste time teaching their kids how to find their way using such archaic methods such as knowing which way is North and how the sun rises in the East and sets in the West?
It's ubiquitous. The whole "Children need to find out how to get unlost by themselves" is complete luddite garbage.
YEA, FUCKING LUDDITES! How dare they think that future generations will ever, ever be unable to access geolocation technology! Computers and machines will always be there to do our thinking for us!! GOOO TECHNOLOGICALLY-ASSISTED LAZINESS!!!!
Children are entering a future where this kind of technology is intrinsically linked to their development.
So, because of that, they shouldn't have to learn anything on their own?
Do you not realize how silly that sounds?
Keeping them inside of a tech-free bubble
Strawman - no one is suggesting that.
just because the parents never grew up with the same technology around them ("And they turned out fine!")
Better than 'fine,' actually - I can find my way out of a wet paper sack without being forced to rely on some device that may or may not be available and functioning. Judging from your statements here, I find it doubtful you'd be able to do the same.
I don't suppose you've ever considered the notion that complete reliance on technology is a self-inflicted handicap?
...is just as bad as brainwashing them into religion at an early age...
So, here you say, essentially, that people who want their kids to learn as opposed to having a machine do all the kids' thinking for them, are exactly the same as crazy-ass fundamentalists?
Man, and some folks think I've got a twisted word view... You take the cake.
Re:South Park did it first! (Score:4, Insightful)
It's called an iPhone. Your kid will carry it willingly, no stress, no questions asked.
Re:A device that helps find lost kids (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem on the other hand is the lack of weaning off parents' "tether", which is often sited by modern psychiatrists as damaging to both kids' and parents' psyche. Both parties basically never learn how to function without the tether. It becomes natural.
End result is the modern helicopter parenting, where both child and parents learn their roles on sides of the tether so well that parents show up for job interviews with their kid... when he's 20+. Yes, it started to happen lately. No too surprisingly kid rarely gets the job. Then, if that kid gets lucky, he'll get a spouse who can become his/her helicopter parent and push real parents out of his/her life.
Seriously, helicopter parenting is a growing problem, and it affects both child and parents. It's the other side of the total neglect coin, and it tends to be almost as damaging.
Re:What are parents so paranoid? (Score:4, Insightful)
Geez....
I was actually talking to my Mom the other day...laughing about when I was about 2-3yrs..I wandered off from her, and got lost in the dept store...and they had to call over the intercom for her to get me.
We "misplaced" one of our kids at a shopping centre when she was about that age. I thought she was with my wife, my wife thought she was with me. It was absolutely horrifying. Security fairly quickly had someone watching near each of the exits etc, but I found her very shortly after happily sitting in a little car ride (the type you put 20c in and it wobbles from side to side a bit) that she'd spotted on the way in.
While it was about the worst i've ever felt about anything (my heart still races when I think about it!), my fear and anxiety was completely irrational, and i'm not going to stick a tracking device on one of my kids just because i've got a vivid imagination about the horrible things that might happen. There's a much higher chance of something bad happening on the drive to and from the shop than in the shop, so clearly spending massive amounts of effort mitigating the latter risk is well and truly misplaced.
I can't believe things are that much more dangerous now, are there? I often wonder, instead of more 'craziees' out there...if it is just more sensationally reported due to needing to fill up 24/7 news?
I'm pretty sure it's the latter. I can't remember the last time a child was actually abducted in Australia... i'm sure it's happened once or twice fairly recently, but there have been way more kids killed in traffic accidents in the same time. The abductions, when they do happen, get far more widely reported though, we even hear about it when it happens in other countries. The one in the US where the child turned up dead in a recycling bin even made the news here.