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Verizon to Launch Mobile 'Chaperone' Service
Billosaur writes "CNET is reporting that Verizon will soon be offering a service (branded "Chaperone") which will allow parents to
keep track of their cell phone-carrying children. Following on the heels of a similar service started by Sprint in April, the system will allow parents 'to set up geographic limits and receive text alerts if their children, who also carry phones, go too far from home. The service also lets parents check where their offspring are via a map on their cell phone or computer.' Disney will purportedly be offering a similar service when it begins selling mobile phones sometime this summer. It's 10pm -- do you know where you child's cell phone is?"
> It's 10pm -- do you know where you child's cell phone is?
Does someone else know where your child is?
which will allow parents to keep track of their cell phone-carrying children
We are all NSA's children...
Kaa
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
1) Tell parent you are going to a friends house...
2) At friend's house, tie Cellphone to family dog (make 'em think you're actually there and moving around)
3) ???
4) Profit!!!
...in bed
Seriously, the kids will know this kind of watching is being done and will either turn off their phone or leave it behind (or ata friends house inside the "permitted area".
Then if the kids really get into trouble they won't have the option of calling for help.
Sounds like a great plan to me.
Where can I check the maps?
This brings a whole new meaning to those "find available women in your area" banner ads.
but children have no rights. Oh well.
Seriously when I was growing up my parents never had any of this technology and yet they managed to keep me out of trouble. While I agree the world is a different place, and there are lots of new and different problems, it all boils down to the parents taking an active role in the child's life. Things like asking the kids how their day went, what sorts of issues they had, things that let the kid know that home is a safe place. Or how about
making time to have dinner together, or helping with the homework or the millions of other things families should do together.
Is this hard to do, hell yes. But nobody ever said life was easy, and in the long run spending time with your kids will be worth it. Remember it works both ways, when the parents are old and need someone to talk to, the children will be there.
Great idea. Now, when your child is thinking about doing something less than smart, they will also intentionally NOT take their cell phone with them.
1. Teen sets up Call Forwarding on their number, forwarding to a friend's non-tracked phone.
2. Teen LEAVES their tracked phone within set boundaries.
3. Teen goes where teen wants, able to intercept calls from the folks on the other phone.
4. Profit! Or at least an unlimited party region...
Ways around it:
1) Turn off your cell phone.
2) Leave it somewhere.
3) Pay some kid to carry it around (making it look like you're still moving)
4) Hang out in tunnels.
5) Line pockets with tin foil.
6) Get better parents.
If the kid doesn't want their parents to know where they are... then the parent's won't know where they are. All the company is doing is marketing a product to paranoid and overly-protective parents.
However... that being said it does have some merits for emergency situations, knowing where to pick your kid up from, and it could be a fun project to map the paths of a group/herd of friends.
That way I can take a plane to see that guy I met on MySpace in the middle east.
So much for that Chaperone.
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
Considering Verizon's crappy coverage in my area, I think the young delinquents here are perfectly invisible.
Whenever Mrs. Fitch breaks wind, we beat the dog.
this is not really for tracking your children, that's just the cover story. More likely be used for tracking spouses - without their knowledge, of course.
If I had created the world I wouldn't have messed about with butterflies and daffodils. I would have started with lasers
3/Sorry mom, the dog ate my phone. I had to wait to retrieve it.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
For years, I've found it astounding the amount of discrimination modern kids face. At school, their civil rights are limited; High school students are subject to what, if placed in any other context, would be blatantly illegal search and seizure. Federal law required that internet access at public high schools (and, for that matter, at public libraries) to be filtered for inappropriate content.
This is really no different. Many Americans were furious to discover that the NSA had recently obtained their cell phone records, yet how many EFF members will raise a complaint against this system? None. Why? Because it's OK to discriminate against kids & students.
Think about it. Afraid your kids will be negatively influenced by some content on the internet? Were you warped by exposure to foul language, racism, and pornography when you were in high school? I bet I know the answer to both of those questions, and I bet they're not the same.
Read around on http://www.peacefire.org/. Again, think about it.
Disclaimer: For what it's worth, I'm 20. It's been years since I endured any discimination because of my age.
For heaven's sake, think of the children!!!
For heaven's sake, don't think of the identical chips in your own phone!!!
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It's funny but I was thinking late last week that I would like to implant a GPS in my kids. They're quite young at the moment and would not be able to use a cell phone or other device to alert me to their location. When they play, they play in the backyard and are not allowed out front without an adult (me or a trusted neighbor) out there with them. That being said, it is darn near impossible to keep one eye on your kids at every moment. There are times that, when I do realize that they are out of eyesight; they may have gone from the front yard to the back yard through the garage, I have to look for them. I'm quite paranoid so not but a few seconds go by before I realize they aren't there. I shudder to imagine if they would get abducted.
That's why a "child-locator" device would be so wonderful to have. Think about all the kids that walk home from school and such. I think this is a great idea. Pop the phone in their backpack or put it in their pocket and make sure it's recharged every night and never turned off. I would punish my kids for turning it off for sure.
I think that, as was mentioned in another posts, if you have a good relationship with your kids and help them to understand that this device (or others that are similar) is for their protection, rather than punishment, I think it will be quite beneficial.
Anonymous Cowards are at -6...
It's a service, if you don't like it either don't get it or put your tinfoil hat on the phone!
Some of us - Even adults for a good many years now - Believe that kids have some right to privacy. Personal experience demonstrated to me, at least, that the more controlling someone's parents acted, the worse that person turned out. You can let them know that they can always turn to you for help, but you can't actually do their thinking for them.
Therefore, you can either have them learn to think while still safely under your wing, or you can have them turn into human Spuds McKenzie impersonators their first year of college. You get to choose the "when", not the "if".
I for one would probably use this, at least a little.
Then you, for one, will someday understand the meaning of "false sense of security", when your merry little tracking device tells you Jimmy hasn't left the neighborhood, when he actually left the phone with a friend and has gone to a rave in another state.
Also useful in emergencies of course.
Gee, if only Jimmy hadn't left his phone with a friend, he could call when an emergency arises. Hope he makes the best of "ass, grass, or ass", eh?
but children have no rights. Oh well.
This used to irritate me so much when I was under 18. It still irritates me, because no where in the constitution does it say anywhere, "these rights are only applicable to those 18 years old or older".
What I find amusing is that a lot of emperors of China, etc, in centuries past were 13 years old. Somehow, recently, we decided an individual is too stupid to think for themselves until they turn 18.
I think most can agree on here, age is no determining factor for intelligence - look at our politicians - most of them are in their 40s, and still brain dead.
-- If we don't stand up for our rights, now, there will be no right to stand up for them later.
After the first 200 calls to 911 that "Tommy's cell phone has disapeared" (only to reappear an hour later when Tommy comes up from his freind's basement) the cops will stop replying to any calls based on this service.
Utterly useless unless you want to find a lost/stolen cell phone which just happened to be left on.
Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the king's English.
Reminds me of the kid that recently got lost in the woods. He nearly starved to death. Why? Because his parents made him so paranoid of strangers that he was hiding from the rescuers. What did his parents tell the press after the kid was found "I'm proud" that he was hiding from the strangers.
What I find amusing is that a lot of emperors of China, etc, in centuries past were 13 years old.
Don't consider this as implying even the remotest knowledge of Chinese history, but were any of these 13-year-old emperors actually running the empire vs simply being crowned while adult aides ran the show?
Somehow, recently, we decided an individual is too stupid to think for themselves until they turn 18.
No, not true. 18 is not the age at which we believe you are no longer too stupid to take care of yourself.
18 is the age at which we as a society stop caring if you aren't.
I strongly disagree with a lot of the blatant abuses of children done by schools; I'm just pointing out that it is wrong to view it as "under 18 is incapable of being independent, over 18 is not". It's just the legal boundary at which societal protections/restrictions are lifted regardless of the consequences.
The enemies of Democracy are
The problem in this "age" isn't a lack of time. It is that too many people accept it as entirely normal that you should have "precious little time enough to have a true family dinner let alone quality time where a family can be together and share ideas and exchange thoughts."
We should not be finding ways to make slavery more convenient. We should demand the right to have the opportunity to raise our children PROPERLY OURSELVES.
I wont even get into the moral issue of whether or not a parent even has any right to force their child to carry a homing device.
No one has a right to their *own* opinion. They have a right to the TRUTH.
Somehow, recently, we decided an individual is too stupid to think for themselves until they turn 18.
Most, unfortunately, are still too stupid to think for themselves at this age and much older.
A way to remotely enable the microphone, so you can "listen in" on your child (or wherever the phone happens to be).
Why can't they just collide a whole bunch of little hadrons?
...then the resolution should be more than sufficient. (And before anyone cries that they would never do these sorts of things, they already do them. They just haven't gotten around to doing them to white US taxpayers. Yet.)
How would you know? Blackmail is most sucessful when it goes unreported. If the blackmailer is some shadowy arm of government or the police who are you going to report it to?
It is as bad as having a permanent leash. I dunno for you, but having such a leash on me around my teen would have pushed me to rebellion (or rather a head on conflict), defiance toward my parents, and even complete and uter distrust. After all why should i trust somebody which do not trust me a bit. Trust is to be shared and exchanged. it ain't a one sided issue (unless you are waaaay naive). Worst case scenario if you are a leash for your whole teenage, you do not get to experience by yourself , and even mature. Making yourself unfit for society. maybe you think i am exagerating, but I know of two of such people. And it is quite sad....
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Are you telling me you've never heard of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI? Thanks to the FOIA, we now at least know some of what was done in the past. And yes, it does include blackmail. The great thing about evil bureaucracies (as opposed to, say, most evil individuals) is they tend to keep a copious paper trail.
--MarkusQ
Do parents really think that their children won't find out that they can be tracked via their cellphone? That means that if they want to go do something without their parents finding out, then they will simply leave it at their friend's house who they are "staying overnight with" and go do what they want. Except now, they don't have the ability to use their cellphone to get help if they get into trouble - which is why they have it in the first place. It seems to be more detrimental than helpful.
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