Let Goofy Track Your Children

Rio writes "The Walt Disney Company unveiled a new wireless phone service that allows parents to track their children on a map using Global Positioning System technology, according to Local 6 News. The new "family friendly" service, called Disney Mobile, allows parents to decide who their children can call and when, the report said. The phone service will launch in June and has not been priced yet."

Comments

This is a great idea... for something else

[tajgenie]

I would LOVE to have a gps reciever that I can track remotely! I would put it in my car and if someone steals it, screw lojack; I'll wait till they cross the border and deliver my own brand of goofy-the-cop justice!

This isn't particularly technically innovative

[rolfwind]

Since 9/11, the government has mandated that all mobile phones be able to pinpoint their location. This is simply Disney extending their capability to see where you/their phones are to you.

From http://www.infowars.com/articles/bb/parents_bosses _gps_track_cellphones.htm

A Government Mandate

In 2001, the Federal Communications Commission ordered mobile telephone carriers to add technology to handsets that pinpoint their location. The idea was to make it easier to track 911 calls.

Some carriers adopted technology that used signals from cell phone towers to determine location. Others, including national carriers Verizon Wireless, Sprint and Nextel, went with GPS.

Although Nextel is the only national carrier to offer GPS services, all new phones sold by these carriers are GPS- equipped. By the end of 2005, companies that chose GPS are supposed to have converted at least 95 percent of their subscribers to the phones, although some carriers have indicated they will ask the FCC for an extension.

In summary...

[bradbeattie]

Get the next generation comfortable with being tracked 24/7?

Re:So I guess...

[MrNougat]

And without a GPS track:

      1. Tell parents that they'll be over at Billy's house for a while.
      2. Kid proceeds to go to the overpass to drop rocks on cars.

No system at all is more easily defeatable than a simple system.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say you don't have children. When parents want to use a tool to enhance the safety of their children, it's not because they can't be bothered to raise them; it's because they love them more than anything, and will try every avenue to make sure their kids are okay. Parents who can't be bothered to raise their children don't care whether the kids are dropping rocks off of overpasses or not.

For those of you keeping score at home, another way to tell when someone doesn't have kids - when the server at the restaurant puts the silverware, full adult-sized water glass and piping hot plate of food immediately in front of the two year old in the booster seat; it's safe to assume that person doesn't have children.

Typical ignorant response.

[nobodyman]

Another false layer of security for parents that can't be bothered to actually raise thier children.

Let me guess - you aren't a parent. Perhaps this service is worthless for parents that have poor relationship with their children. But don't you think that this phone could be a valuable tool for good parents, too? How about this:

1. Billy starts walking home from bus stop
   
2. Stranger grabs Billy and forces him into The Van With No Doors and No Windows
   
3. Stranger drives off.

So, is being able to track your kid's GPS-enabled phone still worthless?

There are actually some very good arguments in favor of giving your kid a cell phone. However, there are downsides such as

• kids can easily exceed alotted minutes (usually inadvertantly).
  
• too easy to sign up for costly services (ringtones, screensavers, whatnot) by pressing 4 numbers but often very difficult to cancel/unsubscribe
  
• not as much control over who your child is talking to than the home phone
  

So, a phone w/ parental controls and GPS goes a long way to addressing these concerns. I myself would have loved this phone back when I was a kid. When I was 15, my parents were pretty lenient about what I could do so long as I a) told them where I'd be b) who I'd be with and c) prove it (usually a phone call from me to check in). Not having a cell phone made it kindof a pain sometimes. Now parents can maintain the same rules but also give their kids a greater sense of freedom.

Re:not sure about this...

[leereyno]

Actually I would argue that it has already been perverted.

A necessary part of being a kid is the ability to do an end-run around one's parents. This is necessary because it creates a balance of power that is very important to the development of that kid into an independent functional adult. Can you imagine how you would have turned out if your parents had actually been able to control EVERYTHING you did and experienced? Can you imagine the level of dysfunction? The disconnect from reality that would result? Just think of all the crap they tried to sell you that seems like a cold cruel joke and an insult to your intellect today. Now imagine being 30 years old and only just now realizing you've been had!

This kind of technology brings us one step closer to a world where parents really CAN make their children into vessels for their own neuroses. The only effective means of mind control is information control. Control what people see and hear and you control what they think because you control what they think about. Developments like this make me fearful for the future of our civilization. If the day ever comes when your average kid never realizes that his or her parents are full of shit, then I'm afraid we're done for.

Lee

Re:not sure about this...

[Nutria]

Can you imagine how you would have turned out if your parents had actually been able to control EVERYTHING you did and experienced?

Great argument, wrong technology.

This service (probably!) does not beam mind control rays into your head; it tracks where your child has been, and who s/he has been calling.

"Stepfordism" and Trust but verify are two totally seperate concepts.

Re:Mod those parents down!

[ultranova]

Part of the process of teaching them how to act is teaching them how to not act when you aren't around. A necessary piece of teaching them what to and not-to do is knowing what they are doing when you are not around. This phone service could help in that regard.

If you are watching them, in what way are you not around ? And what happens when they turn 18 and you can't watch them anymore ? Methinks they are going to go do all the things - sex, drugs, booze, tobacco, rock'n'roll - they think they missed out because they had to carry the all-seeing eye with them.