Children's Watch Allows Parents To Track Their Kid

pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that a new wristwatch called num8 has a GPS tracking device and satellite positioning system concealed inside so parents can locate the wearer to within 10 feet with Google maps. The watch sends an alert if it is forcibly removed. The makers of the watch claim it gives peace of mind to parents and makes children more independent. 'Losing your child, if only for a brief moment, leads to a state of panic and makes parents feel powerless. The overriding aim of num8 is to give children their freedom and parents peace of mind,' says a company spokesman. Critics of the watch say tagging children is a step too far in paranoia about child safety. 'Is the world really that unsafe that parents need to track their children electronically? I don't think so,' says Dr Michele Elliott, director of children's charity Kidscape."

Comments

Kid won't know what to do when an adult

[Anonymous Coward]

Sometimes I wish for some apocalypse just so the "Please won't someone take care of me!" dolts realize that the only person who can take care of you - IS YOU!.

Re:Kid won't know what to do when an adult

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I'm all for self-reliance, and for not being a paranoid nitwit; but the notion that all the problems of the world are solvable by rugged self-reliance and insolvable by other means would be merely absurd, were it not so common.

Until the advent of mass spectrometers in every household, the difference between a nice cool drink and a delicious cup of cancer comes down to what someobody else may or may not have been dumping into your water supply. The difference between a safe commute and exciting fiery death comes down to whether or not some multinational car company decided to do a recall on the car the guy behind you is driving in response to a defect report from one of their subcontractors.

There are, to be sure, loads of problems that are best solved yourself, ideally by means of not being a moron. However, pretending that all problems are such is nothing more than a good way to end up alone and helpless against people who are neither.

In fact, that is the reason why you have to "wish for some apocalypse" for people to "realize that the only person who can take care of you is you". Under non-apocalyptic conditions, there are loads of people who can take care of you. Like your doctor, and the guy who makes your garbage go away, and the chap who (eventually) comes out when your internet connection isn't working, and the whole massive supply chain that keeps your widgets flowing. Contemporary society, really anything beyond the barest forms of subsistence scavenging, absolutely depends on division of labor and specialization. And, the necessary consequence of specialization is dependence on others. Not absolute, Smith's pin factory isn't a hive society; but pretending that you can have autarchic self reliance and division of labor at the same time is silly.

Re:Kid won't know what to do when an adult

[ShadowRangerRIT]

It costs 150 pounds ($240-250 USD). I think I can think of things more valuable to a growing child than an overpriced watch/GPS combo.

Of course, remembering how I treated watches as a child, I think the GPS functionality might come in handy more often than you suspect. No, your child isn't going to be kidnapped, but he *will* lose his watch. Except this time you have a chance to find it. If this happens 10-20 times, it will pay for itself (vs. the cost of a visually identical non-GPS watch). If my parents hadn't stopped buying me watches after I lost the fourth one, I definitely would have come out ahead on this.

Re:Kid won't know what to do when an adult

[R2.0]

"Contemporary society, really anything beyond the barest forms of subsistence scavenging, absolutely depends on division of labor and specialization."

That's a hell of a jump there. Besides which, you are setting up a strawman. The GP didn't say "all the problems of the world are solvable by rugged self-reliance and insolvable by other means". He was bemoaning the fact that people expect others to take care of them and keep them safe. One can be responsible for oneself without roaming across the post apocalyptic wilderness.

Let's take an example. Who is responsible for keeping you safe from criminals? Most would say "the police". But are you aware that, legally, the police are NOT responsible for that? Their job is to deal with crime AFTER it happens. To take it further, "police" as we know them didn't exist until 1829 with the founding of the London police. Prior to that, who was responsible for keeping people safe? The answer is that the individual, or family, was responsible.

There's a big difference between the interactions of specialists in trade and a state of perpetual childhood. It's the difference between knowing some people make and sell shoes and it's my responsibility to acquire them by fair and legal means, and believing that it's the cobbler's responsibility to ensure that you have shoes. Or someone elses responsibility to force the cobbler to give you shoes.

Re:Kid won't know what to do when an adult

[CastrTroy]

You'd probably get a lot of good from reading about Berentain Bears Learn About Strangers. Sure kids are vulnerable. Bad things could and may happen to them. But there's such a thing of being too scared and too cautious. Basic moral of the story is this: You should wary and careful around strangers, but most people aren't all that bad, and you shouldn't go around living your life in fear. I'm not sure how something like this wouldn't be used as a leash. If you really have to know the exact pinpointed location of your kids every second of the day, then you have too much fear.

Re:Kid won't know what to do when an adult

[Shakrai]

Let's take an example. Who is responsible for keeping you safe from criminals? Most would say "the police". But are you aware that, legally, the police are NOT responsible for that?

Warren v. District of Columbia is one of the pertinent cases on this subject. From the link:

Warren v. District of Columbia is a U.S. Court of Appeals case in which three rape victims sued the District of Columbia because of negligence on the part of the police. Two of three female roommates were upstairs when they heard men break in and attack the third. After repeated calls to the police over half an hour, the roommate's screams stopped, and they assumed the police had arrived. They went downstairs and were held captive, raped, robbed, beaten, and forced to commit sexual acts upon one another and to submit to the attackers' sexual demands for 14 hours. The police had lost track of the repeated calls for assistance. DC's highest court ruled that the police do not have a legal responsibility to provide personal protection to individuals, and absolved the police and the city of any liability.

Cute, isn't it? The police "lose" the phone calls, don't respond for hours and then get absolved of all liability for the hell that those people had to go through. Remember that story the next time you are talking to someone who tells you that the police will protect you. They won't -- even if you live somewhere with a police force that's more competent than DC, it will still take them several minutes to arrive. Until they get there you are on your own. You'd best be prepared.

Re:Kid won't know what to do when an adult

[Runaway1956]

"How do you expect a 6 year old to take care of themselves if they wander off somewhere?"

In today's world? How many people live where a 6 year old can wander very far from SOME ADULT? Do you live in outback Australia, where the nearest neighbor is 30 miles away? If so, the GPS probably isn't available anyway.

But, back to the 6 years old thing. Notice my nick. At six years old, a kid may not have great judgement, but they CAN take care of themselves. At age six, I had explored almost all of the township that I lived in. By age 10 I had covered almost all of my county. Get a grip - children are more capable than a lot of people want to give them credit for. Toddlers are the ones most likely to benefit from this idea, but if a parent NEEDS GPS to track their toddler, they aren't very good parents.

Re:Kid won't know what to do when an adult

[Shakrai]

It's not the fact that he didn't "take them on" that shakes my confidence. From the account of the incident that I read it wasn't as simple as him handing over his wallet and going on his way. He went with them off the main drag into an alleyway, surrendered his wallet/car keys/cell phone/etc and was then clubbed over the head and left for dead.

Anyone that would allow such a thing to happen to themselves while they still draw breath is not someone who has any business teaching self-defense. I would happily surrender my wallet to avoid a confrontation. I'd hand it over even if I knew I could win, because a wallet is not worth killing or maiming someone over.

I draw the line at going with them. If someone demands that you go with them you should fight as though your life depends on it. Whatever they intend to do to you they obviously aren't comfortable doing it in your current location. It's sheer dumb luck that the instructor lived through this incident. He surrendered control of the situation and left himself at the mercy of criminal thugs. The fact that he's still in business amazes me.

Re:Kid won't know what to do when an adult

[dlsmith]

Once it starts to catch on, it will be mandated for ALL children, ages ~3-15.

Arguing against a "think of the children" fallacy with a slippery slope fallacy. Classic.

Good for pre-teens, but not older

[MBGMorden]

Personally I wouldn't use this for teenagers because at that age, they have matured enough that they deserve a little privacy, and they will be going to difference places and such as part of their normal social life. However, for pre-teens, they generally will not be going anywhere but the places you expect them to. If they're not at those places, then they're generally in trouble (whether they've wandered off on accident, been abducted, or are just being mischievous). I don't see how this bracelet really compromises much convenience on their part, so personally I wouldn't hesitate to use it on younger children.

Re:Good for pre-teens, but not older

[muckracer]

> I don't see how this bracelet really compromises much convenience on their
> part, so personally I wouldn't hesitate to use it on younger children.

20 years later:
"Dad...about that nasty cancer growth... :-/"

Re:Good for pre-teens, but not older

[IBBoard]

Personally I wouldn't use this for teenagers because at that age, they have matured enough that they deserve a little privacy

That, plus if you look at the picture then there's no way in hell that any teenager would be seen dead with that thing on their wrist :D

Re:Good for pre-teens, but not older

[Anonymous Coward]

Personally I wouldn't use this for teenagers because at that age, they have matured enough that they deserve a little privacy

Exactly - if you put the wristwatch on a teenage boy, all they'll find is that he's spending most of his time in the bathroom rapidly jumping back and forth about 4" at a time.

We never needed them before

[chetbox]

Parents have been perfectly capable of looking after their children without GPS tracking for millennia... IMHO with a little trust and good parenting, these devices are completely unnecessary.

Re:We never needed them before

[IBBoard]

What is it with the large proportion of parents who feel it suddenly is necessary, though? I'm a parent, and he may still be less than 18 months old and so not going very far, but both me and my wife feel that a lot of this stuff (including net nanny monitors) is overkill and is just going to destroy the child's concepts of trust, personal space and self-reliance.

Instill good values in your child and do your job as a parent and you can't go far wrong. Start to let technology do your job for you (because, shock-horror, the other alternative is putting in effort and teaching stuff to kids) and it'll all go wrong.

Big Brother starts with you!

[agnosticanarch]

Hey, we should use devices like this to get children used to the idea of being watched constantly. . .

Then, when they are adults, they won't mind Big Brother watching every little thing they do. It's for their safety, after all!

~AA

please...

[the_fat_kid]

oh, for fsk sake. have you people lost your damn minds?
"lets get our children used to electronic monitoring early"
We have a device like that here allready, we use it for work release from jail.
How about we raise children that we trust out of our sight?
If you need to track your children like criminals, then I feel sorry for you.
sort of.

Re:So, Dr Elliott,

[muckracer]

> what exactly would have happened to Madeleine McCann if she was wearing one
> of these when abducted ? Either: (a) it would have been forcibly removed -
> causing an alert, or (b) police would have been able to track her.

Or (c) Tracking Police would have found her chopped-off arm, incl. intact bracelet.

Not always paranoia

[pvera]

As a parent of an autistic child with escape artist tendencies, I would love to have this kind of watch. That is, assuming that my kid will wear it for more than 5 minutes in a row without trying to cut it off.

My kid is 10 and incredibly fast. He doesn't understand the concepts of safety and fear, and is constantly figuring out ways to break our locks to go out wandering alone (he's even done it at school, which was actually a bit funny because he took off running in front of the principal, so for the first few minutes there was a gaggle of huffing and puffing teachers and secretaries chasing through an apartment complex until the cops arrived). A watch like this, combined with some kind of alarm could help us keep him alive and unharmed until he is 18.

Useless as a kick stand on a bass boat.

[kurt555gs]

Almost all child abuse is from family members. Wearing a GPS watch won't help to stop the step dad from hurting the kid. Abuse or abduction by strangers is so rare that it is hardly worth mentioning. All this does is extract money from parents and lets them pretend the danger is somewhere that it isn't.
 

plug for my all time favorite /. sig

[Shakrai]

"If you spend all your time childproofing the world you won't have any time to worldproof your child."

I saw that in a sig awhile ago. Don't remember from who. It's a great one though.