KEEP THEM SAFE! Tag your children

BlitzKrieg

In the independent today they had a little piece in the world report about a tagging system being brought in by this company to allow parents to put on their children a gps chip which will tell them where they are 24 hours a day. While i see the safety advantages of such a system it still sends chills down my back when i think of the '1984' feeling of constant supervision and lack of privacy.


Its currently available in America and will be soon in England. people are worried about hackers abusing the system. I'm more worried about governments and companies abusing it...

www.wherifywireless.com

Dancing duck

Available in America, the land of the free?

blobert

This kind of stuff is nonsence.

It's the kind of thing they'll have a bit about on Sky News (because it's sensational and they don't have enough proper news to fill the time) but ultimately it won't take off.

People are not that stupid. Or at least not in Ireland or the U.K!

fragile

And how long before the kids realise that all they have to do is leave their GPS chips in the park while they go off doing stuff theyre not supposed to be doing :rolleyes:

unless the plan is to actually implant these chips, which I cant imagine any sane parent doing to their child, at least not on this side of the Atlantic..

BlitzKrieg

supposably you need a special key to take them off, so the kid cant leave the GPS in the park.

davej

We'll all have to wear tin foil hats eventually..

Tell you what though I could have done with such a system at Oxegen. Trying to locate your friends in the chaos of a music festival would be made a lot easier if you had a little pda/map with blips representing your mates.

davej

seamus

Knowing where your kids are is useless if you don't know what they're doing. Think of the difference between your kid playing with barbies on the side of the motorway, and playing football on the side of the motorway. (Extreme example)

:rolleyes:

Never catch on. Try putting one of these on a boy, aged between 2 and 10, and it won't come home in one piece.

Tell you what though I could have done with such a system at Oxegen. Trying to locate your friends in the chaos of a music festival would be made a lot easier if you had a little pda/map with blips representing your mates.

Now that's a *much* more sensible application. Familes going on holidays, going to Disneyworld and somesuch.

fragile

At the risk of being branded a luddite..

So much for evolution, other animals (seals, birds, bats etc.) have the ability to locate their offspring by the sound of their voice alone in crowds of hundreds and in the case of bats even thousands. If humans ever had this ability we have long since lost it and have to resort to the use of electronics..

Syth

But if someone abducts a child, t what's to stop them just taking a chisel to the we-know-where-you-are device and thus making it impossible? After all, from the website, it's quite obvious the child has one and you can tell where it is.

Not to mention that a lot of the scandals lately could not have been discovered if the child has a we-know-where-you-are device. Think of when priests were abusing children. Would a we-know-where-you-are device have stopped that? No. It's pointless.

Also, lets say you do decide to snoop on your child. When do you take the we-know-where-you-are device off? When they are 10? 12? 15? 17? When? It's a gray area.

And please, won't someone think of the children

Victor

Originally posted by fragile
So much for evolution, other animals (seals, birds, bats etc.) have the ability to locate their offspring by the sound of their voice alone in crowds of hundreds and in the case of bats even thousands. If humans ever had this ability we have long since lost it and have to resort to the use of electronics..

JacINTAAAAAAAA

Stark

God almighty. I would have had a very boring childhood had my parents implanted me with one of those.

(There's no need anyway, they can just use a service to track them using their mobiles ).

Sleepy

There's also the major factor that most child abuse is conducted by someone known to the family, not random strangers. "Oh, little Billy's over visiting Mr Brown, isn't that nice? He's such a sweet little kid". :rolleyes:

Xterminator

seamus wrote:

Knowing where your kids are is useless if you don't know what they're doing. Think of the difference between your kid playing with barbies on the side of the motorway, and playing football on the side of the motorway. .

I can see where they might be useful.

For instance to verify your kid is where that say they are. EG friends house.
(How many times did i use that one ? )

They are not nescarily being marketed as a 'find your kid if he's kidnapped'
device, rather a parental aid.

Im sure a hidden chip embedded in footwear or piece of jewelry could fool an uncoperative teenager ,into carring the device, but that not actually how i see it being used primarily.

I personally would consider using one on a teenager, who had broken trust, eg mitched from school etc, to track their behaviour. It could be a deterrant, IE dont go to such a place, or make sure you attend school all day!
Using techniques developed for prisoner tracking, you would know if it is interfered with.

X





X

BlitzKrieg

Xterminator wrote:

I can see where they might be useful.

For instance to verify your kid is where that say they are. EG friends house.
(How many times did i use that one ? )

They are not nescarily being marketed as a 'find your kid if he's kidnapped'
device, rather a parental aid.

Im sure a hidden chip embedded in footwear or piece of jewelry could fool an uncoperative teenager ,into carring the device, but that not actually how i see it being used primarily.

I personally would consider using one on a teenager, who had broken trust, eg mitched from school etc, to track their behaviour. It could be a deterrant, IE dont go to such a place, or make sure you attend school all day!
Using techniques developed for prisoner tracking, you would know if it is interfered with.

X





X

so the proper way to be a good parent is if they misbehave you tag em an destroy any form of privacy...hmmm


I'm sorry i understand where your coming from its for disruptive teenagers. Its just seems such a cold inhuman from of control for me that it just sends chills down my spine. also taking this sort of stance (military like control of your child) usually results in the child being more disruptive back towards you...

Victor

BlitzKrieg wrote:

also taking this sort of stance (military like control of your child) usually results in the child being more disruptive back towards you...

In that instance, you fit one of these chips

BlitzKrieg

???

eh...



anyway back on topic...the independent followed up on this article with a new one today stating that the English government will put this tagging system on children who's parents are crinimals...



hmmm.....the safety excuse for promoting such devices has just gone out the window pass the bus stop and into a concrete wall...