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Watching Kids Via Mobile Phone

Joe the Lesser writes "This BBC article says how parents could soon keep a much closer eye on what children are up to on their way to and from school thanks to a mobile monitoring system. It will send text alerts to their mobile phone if the child deviates too far from that route or takes too long getting there."

20 of 253 comments (clear)

  1. Whatever by jhunsake · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Like this won't be hard to fool. Give your phone to a friend that *is* going to the school event. Or any number of a million different ways. Kids are very innovative.

    1. Re:Whatever by Liora · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Exactly. I can already see it...

      "Hey, are you going straight home after school?"
      "Yeah"
      "Can you drop my phone on my doorstep on your way?"

      That would have been my method at least...

      --
      Liora
    2. Re:Whatever by Hayzeus · · Score: 5, Funny

      Which is why we surgically implant the phone into junior's abdomen. Let's see the little nippers get around THAT one...

    3. Re:Whatever by stilwebm · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Many of the kids who do stray from their path with get the idea from this type of "leash" technology.

      Give the kids some responsibility and some space. Let them grow. Otherwise they will be thrown in to college or the real world with the need for responsibility for their first time. I've seen it happen, and believe me, it is not pretty.

  2. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  3. Move Over Big Brother by razablade · · Score: 5, Funny

    Big Mother is watching you...

    --
    The expression is "I could NOT care less." Think about it.
  4. Can I use it.. by Hayzeus · · Score: 4, Funny

    To keep them from deviating too close to the refrigerator? Sign me up!

  5. This Just In: by burgburgburg · · Score: 4, Funny

    A.G. John Ashcroft requires all citizens to carry mobile monitoring system. "Stop whining, be patriotic and recognize that this is for your own good. Now bend over."

  6. Re:WW2 by DaemonGem · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Some good parenting = trust ! facist paranoia."

    I never had this problem with my parents. They always trusted me, I'm pleased to say, however, I'm not here to discuss me. There are a million ways to get around this, such as ... leaving your phone at home, or turning your phone off. Now perhaps people will say that since they are kids, and most kids are irresponsible, this is a good thing to do. However:

    "Rules are meant to be broken"
    -Some wise soul

    I take for example spy software that my best friend's mother put on his computer. He wasn't computer savvy enough to bypass it, however, if I had had such software on my computer:

    1. I would hate my parents, and feel resentful towards them.
    2. I would do my best to bypass this with things that are available here.

    Don't people realize that spying on your kids will only make them want to break the rules? If I knew that my parents were the type that would spy on me while I'm at school, then I would refuse to have a cell phone.

    This seems to me to be something for overly paranoid and protective parents that think they can't trust their kids, and need to know at what second of the day their kids are doing anything.
    -Dae

    --
    "Alle reden vom wetter. Wir nicht." - SDS Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund.
    j00 4r3 3n73r1ng l337 w0r1d.
  7. Children as Products by SuperMario666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    An average one mile walk will have around 10 checkpoints but the parent can have fewer if they wish.

    Maybe by the time my children get around to having children we'll have mobile phones that can completely rob our children of free will. Hell, since we're already starting to design them from birth maybe phone triggered on(wake)/off(sleep) switches as well. Anything to keep us from actually having to waste our precious time or assume any sort of responsibility for our kids - that's what technology and the government are for!

    1. Re:Children as Products by natet · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Hello, do you even have kids?? Do you know every minute of the day what they are doing? If so, you are a better parent than I. This doesn't have to be a fascist thing. I for one would like to know if my kid actually got to school. If he is cutting class, that is possibly a symptom of a larger problem, and should probably be discussed.

      In this day and age when parents are afraid to do something as basic as spank thier child, it is about time that someone came out with something to help even things out.

      --
      IANAL... But I play one on /.
  8. Please Dont Tell My Wife !!!! by Dave21212 · · Score: 4, Funny


    ...about these things !


    I can just imagine, "Honey, stop by the grovery store, and the cleaners, and gas station, oh, and I'll be monitoring your progress so don't get 'lost' on the way..."
    [shivvvvvers]

    --
    "Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."--Benjamin Franklin
  9. Pink Floyd said it by PD · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hush, my baby. Baby, don't you cry.
    Momma's gonna make all of your nightmares come true.
    Momma's gonna put all of her fears into you.
    Momma's gonna keep you right here under her wing.
    She won't let you fly, but she might let you sing.

    What we do to our kids, they will eventually turn around and do it to us.

  10. children's rights? by SHEENmaster · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I know that legally colonial serfs had more rights than I do as a minor in the USA, but I wouldn't take shit like this.

    This is just begging for waterproof-testing, dogbiteproof-testing, bullyproof-testing, backingcaroverproof-testing, and fireproof-testing. I can understand the acceptability for much younger children, but by the time we get a single friend with a driver's license the "leash" idea is dead in the water.

    You celebrate that the government doesn't have the right to put a radio collar on you, yet you jump at the oppurtunity to put one on your own child!

    "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

    --
    You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
    1. Re:children's rights? by Xerithane · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You celebrate that the government doesn't have the right to put a radio collar on you, yet you jump at the oppurtunity to put one on your own child!

      A parent has an obligation to be informed of their childs where-abouts, and safety. Governments do not raise children, parents do. Parents care about the well-being, which is exactly why he said he would use it as a notifier if something went wrong.

      This is a good thing.

      If your parents don't trust you at 16, I would say it has something to do with you, not them.

      --
      Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
  11. This is the future... of oppression. by Gary+Franczyk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oppression always shows its strongest form on children. There is an enormous amount of power in the hands of the parents.

    Parents do things to children that would be unconscionable on ordinary citizens, or even the worst criminals.

    Think about it. Think of the uproar that would occur if the government:

    - Drugged undesirables with adult 'ritalin'.
    - Tracked our movements to make sure we were in the right place at the right time.
    - Removed the right to free speech like they do at schools. (even though the supreme court ruled that the right to free speech did not end when students and teachers entered the school doors)

    Just something to think about.

  12. Give your parents a heart attack by sssmashy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Eventually, the monitoring system will be combined with GPS data so that parents can track the location of their precious children at all times.

    This leads to some interesting possibilities for teenage pranksters. Imagine the look on Mom's and Dad's faces when, just before leaving on his three-day camping trip, little Johnny sends his cellphone to China by FedEx.

  13. Awesome idea, but... by Joey7F · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I am certain that no one, not even the cellular services, will use this to their advantage...

    Two years later...

    ::walking downtown::

    ::Text message beeps::

    I open it and it says,

    "Why not try a tasty burger from 'Flinging Freddy's' only 2 blocks away."

    Call my cynical,

    --Joey

  14. ready for corporate camp! by NedTheNerd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    WARNING: Timmy is leaving the sceduled path deserters will be shot! there is a viable alternative for this device. actualy WALKING WITH your child to school. but of course if thats too much you can have your robot drug your child and have him shipped to school via fed ex.

  15. Psychological Repercussions by starsong · · Score: 3, Interesting
    This may be OT, but think of how this kind of thing, misapplied (and it *will* be misapplied, as all technology eventually is) could affect a kid.

    Picture a child, who...
    • never cuts class
    • is never late
    • always goes where he's supposed to
    • always says "please" and "thank you"
    • never gets in with the "wrong crowd"
    • never gets into fights
    • never watches TV until his homework's done
    • never watches violent movies or TV
    • never looks at porn or "inapproprite content" online
    • always has dinner with his parents
    • has the "right" friends, made at soccer practice and trombone lessons and nature camp and Sunday school and community service weekends and every other Very Important Character-Building Activity

    Was this you when you were young? Would you really be a better person if you had done these things? Would you be happier? My vote is NO, as I spent all of high school doing most of these things and was ready to kill myself freshman year of college, when I was given an ID card, a room key and told to fend for myself.

    My mind drifts to Jonbenet Ramsey as I wonder why American parents have such sterilized, plastic-molded ideals for their children.