LoJack for children
Available for $99.99 is the ability to track the location of your children, or anyone else, using a combination of GPS and cellular technology. It is ostensibly the LoJack for kids.
You can even set up safety checks to ensure your child is within a certain zone during certain times. We’ll let the product pitch explain it:
“Keep tabs on your child at all times with this small but sophisticated device that combines GPS and cellular technology to provide you with real-time location updates. The small and lightweight Little Buddy transmitter fits easily into a backpack, lunchbox or other receptacle, making it easy for your child to carry so you can check his or her location at any time using a smartphone or computer. Customizable safety checks allow you to establish specific times and locations where your child is supposed to be — for example, in school — causing the device to alert you with a text message if your child leaves the designated area during that time.”
Source: Best Buy
“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.”
H.L. Mencken
Insignia's Little Buddy Child Tracker
Here is a writeup of a similar type of product:
“House-arrest monitoring is achieved through the usage of an ankle bracelet. The bracelet is attached to the prisoner’s ankle at the commencement of the sentence and remains throughout the duration of the time served. The bracelet contains an electronic signal, similar to a geographic positioning system, which tracks the whereabouts of the wearer. In the event the convicted person travels outside of the confinement area, the bracelet automatically will send a signal to the police department.”
Source: http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5129741_house-arrest-ankle-bracelet-work.html
Make sure Jenny does not leave the safety zone you have setup.
What is kind of bizarre is that the majority of customer reviews seem to acknowledge the Orwellian overtones of this product, and go on to suggest that this device would be good for keeping track of your car. Example: “Instead of criticizing this device as big brotherish, as many sites have, people should think outside the box. What about putting it under your car seat. Someone steals your car, then track its location.” I think that’s what the actual LoJack is for, although this product may be cheaper as LoJack seems to start at more then $300. Regardless, tracking your car is not how this product is being marketed.
One customer points out that kids lose bags, and the device could easily be removed or misplaced. This is a good point, if only there were a way the tracked subject could not remove the tracking device. Perhaps some manner of implanted transmitter would work better?
People will invariably argue that this is better than a kidnapping, citing the immediately obvious worst case scenario. In single cases it definitely is a good risk trade off, most would readily trade a child’s loss of privacy for getting a child returned. That is an easy risk assessment.
But what about on scale? Do you remove the freedom of movement of thousands of children, the ability to not be tracked, for what will statistically be a low number of kidnapping cases (something like 2 out of 1,000 kids are abducted by non-family members) that would justify such tracking? Put another way, based on the actual probability of when this tracking would be useful, combined with the serious threat of kidnapping, does the overall risk justify trading in one’s child’s freedom of movement as well as nominally the cost of the device and the time spent monitoring it? Parents will have to do the risk assessment for themselves.
The whole thing makes you wonder how your freedom of movement will be taken away. These types of changes usually follow a pattern: first it comes under the guise of security, when it starts it allows you to opt in, and it always begins by infringing on the rights of those who are least able to defend themselves: like children.
References:
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Filed Under: Technology in Society
