187,000 hits! That’s what I dug up when I clicked the Google Search button. No, I wasn’t looking for the latest spring-summer fashion, nor was I in search of up-to-the-minute mobile accessories! I had actually typed the key phrases “children’s safety”, “devices to track children”, and “how to track a teenager”. I even found one website in the United States that provides background checks on anyone who is in contact with children; you just type the name in the state’s records and up pops the data.
It is astounding how such a topic, which only two decades ago had been a casual matter that mothers and fathers were perfectly comfortable with handling, has become a significant worry, sometimes even a national matter. Also, and not insignificantly, it has become a prospering business.
I don’t mean to belittle parents’ worry and love for their precious ones. Certainly we are living in an unsafe world, and our children are more vulnerable than ever; that’s why there are so many devices out there to help parents keep track of their children and watch over their wellbeing. To begin with, cameras, not a modern invention, have been in use for the purposes of supervision and safety for quite some time. More parents are considering using hidden in-home surveillance devices to watch their child's caregiver. Counter Spy Shops, an international retail chain, reports a 25 per cent increase in sales of these devices – often called ‘nanny-cams’ – over the past five years. There are a variety of cameras available on the market today. Most are wireless and can be hidden in almost any type of household item from a plant to a stuffed animal. Some are even worn on the body, disguised as a watch or a pen for instance. The prices vary widely, from about 100USD for a basic camera offering remote computer access, to more than 500USD for digital systems, which can send video images live via computer or cell phone. The day-care industry has started to embrace this technology, installing cameras so as to allow parents to spot check and watch their child while at work.
Cameras have wide applications and in some instances parents are utilising hidden wireless cams with night vision, not for the nanny of course, but to know whether their devious 16-year-old is planning to skip out when the lights go out.
Then there is the driving matter. While a driver’s license is a very important rite of passage for teenagers, how can parents be sure their kids are being responsible? Nowadays there are cell phones, flip down DVD players, satellite radio, and other entertainment options to distract even the most seasoned drivers. Teenagers just learning the rules of the road are especially susceptible to those diversions. The solution lies in the Road Safety RS-1000 and CarChipE/X. These devices attach to a vehicle's onboard diagnostics connector, located underneath the dashboard to monitor a teenager’s driving. Once installed, they supervise and record parameters such as speed, hard braking and quick acceleration.
I guess in this case discussions about speeding will go like this:
Teenager: But Mum, I wasn’t speeding, honestly!
Mother: Oh yes you were, you were going 160km/hr! I have the numbers mister!
If you're a parent, you know that keeping an eye on your kids can be tough. Technology can make that job a little easier. The Global Positioning System is a satellite-based navigation system that is commonly referred to as GPS. The devices that enable access to the technology are integrated within a subscription service that is made up of a network of satellites. This network and accompanying ground stations communicate in order to locate any object on the surface of the Earth. The system can provide detailed information of the location of objects, the direction they are moving as well as their exact velocity. The system can be activated on demand, meaning that the parent can carry a handheld unit that can pinpoint their child’s location at any time. When investing in the gadget, the parents are expected to set a user-defined range. This is the mapped area within which the child would be considered safe. Any movement beyond the base causes an alarm to go off, one that sounds like a series of loud beeps. The beeps are loud enough to be located. The base unit is the main tracking device and helps the parent to discover the child's whereabouts immediately.
Google, always keen on being a pioneer, provides parents with the service Google Latitude, a free piece of software that helps parents locate a family member through a mobile phone or the Internet.
What I have found most intriguing is the concept of micro-chipping one’s kid, a highly controversial topic, so that should ever anything happen, the parents could always find out exactly where their child is in the world. A microchip is a tiny silicon computer chip encased in a surgical glass case about the size of a grain of rice. The glass is inert and cannot dissolve, corrode or interact with living tissue. I can’t explain it, but the image of agent Sculley from X-Files on an operating table surrounded by glassy-eyed aliens has just flashed before me! I believe, as a parent, if you consider using this phenomenon, you’ve gone too far! “Once a microchip is implanted in a human being, it’s no longer just a privacy issue – it’s a human rights matter,” says Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Centre in Washington, D.C., June 5, 2007. I could not agree more.
