07 Jan 09 Geotagging Your Kid

Using GPS to remotely track something or someone is not a new idea.  But UK based company Lok8u has released its latest iteration of the idea at this year’s CES.  The Nu.M8 is the same idea put into a wristwatch form.  The device uses cellular network data to approximate the device’s location and then refines that approximation with GPS data if possible.  One additional feature of the wristwatch form is the ability to transmit an alarm if the device is removed without being sent an authorized removal code first.

Forums are already shouting invasion of privacy.  But assuming we’re talking about monitoring the K-6 crowd and not your 17 year old daughter who you don’t trust because her boyfriend happens to drive a motorcycle, well I’m not sure how much privacy there is to invade.  The argument seems about as extreme as chastising parents of mischievous teens for not knowing the exact GPS coordinates of their offspring at all times.

Tools like GPS tracking devices are just that.  Tools.  They are not inherently good or evil.  It is the use of the tool that determines the moral implications.  Being reasonable and maintaining balance is key.

General parenting guideline.  If you actively track and review the exact location of your offspring at every moment from birth to the day he/she moves out of your smothering home, you’re doing it wrong.  Likewise if you have no clue where your child is if they aren’t standing directly in front of you, guess what you’re doing it wrong.

Properly implemented I think this is a fine product.  Explain to your child what it is and why you would like them to wear it.  Explain to them that if they become lost that it will help you to find them.  Could a child slid this off without triggering the alarm? Probably.  Could a kidnapper do the same, possibly.  But even then the worst case scenario you have a location to start the search from, canvas for witnesses, and maybe even a fingerprint or two on the device.

And at some point when you know your child won’t be lured away by promises of candy, and is large enough to not be easily over-powered and snatched, devices like this should be put away and instead rely on trust.   Children should be given the latitude to push boundaries and explore and even get into a little trouble, but not when they are too little to handle trouble.

Lok8u via Daily Mail

Tags: boundries, GPS, location tracking, safety