I was reading about a YAKTA (Yet Another Kid Tracking Application) this morning and one sentence leapt out at me as being different. After the normal blurb about tracking loved ones’ movements in real time, it says that the service
even alerts them [parents] when their child is in a sexual predator zone.
I was intrigued by the Sexual Predator Zone angle and while I couldn’t find any more information about this aspect of the product, I did come across this hack of Google maps - Florida Sexual Predator. Essentially, you can enter your Florida zip code and a Google map shows you the home addresses, crime history and mug shots of all convicted sexual predators in your area, from information provided by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
This is Megan’s Law in action and I’m not going to get into a debate about the rights and wrongs of it here.
But I will say that I find the thought of this kind of information available on our phones profoundly unsettling. Big Media and government have long colluded to keep the people in a state of fear. But imagine the kind of world where our kids are alerted by their phones to be specially on their guard as they’re just about to pass the house where Dr Evil lives, the renown pederast (”What’s a pederast, Dad?”). Or where parents get all tense at 4.00 every day while their child runs the gauntlet on the street with 2 convicted child rapists?
Do we really want that information? Or is the desire not to know simply burying our heads in the sand?
Regular readers of MobHappy will know that I’m not a big fan of these types of tracking services anyway. They prey on and inflate the very natural fears of any parent, but more importantly, they don’t deliver what they promise.
The important point is that they track the phone and not the kid. Frankly, the ability to track a phone, with or without this type of service, has been all over the media and it would take a very stupid kidnapper who wouldn’t know to ditch the phone.
And in the case of older kids, here’s an anecdote from the same story, told by a parent:
“Matt was in a part of town he wasn’t supposed to be in. We tracked him with CATTRAX(TM)and found him at a teen party. The computer told us the street address and we went to the house to pick him up. We avoided a lot of potential trouble that night.”
So apart from humiliating Matt, all that parent has achieved is that Matt isn’t going to take his phone with him next time he goes partying. Or he’ll leave it with a study mate to lull his parents into a false sense of security. So far from avoiding trouble, they’ve simply postponed a date with it.
All these child tracking ideas really do is heighten our state of fear as we try to live our lives - they don’t really solve anything. Life is inherently a risky business, but to focus on all the dangers is surely to miss the point. Life is for living, not cowering in fear. And therefore sometimes I think it is better not to know.
[tags]sexual predators, child tracking, kid tracking, LBS, Megan’s Law[tags]
Great posting Russell !
Absolutely great. I totally agree with it. I especially like the last part which is exactly what every kid will do. What those parents managed to do, in fact, was to teach all of the classmates of their son about switching phones when going partying. Not only their own son, but of course he tells his friends in school never to make that mistake again, meaning that all kids will avoid the nuisance of the parents snooping on them, and all the parents will remain in a false sense of security.
Keep up the great work at MobHappy !
Tomi Ahonen
Well said. Our company (EnGraph) provides GPS software and the first thing people say is “I would like to have that for my kid”. Kids are smart and they are not going to take a phone that says where they are to somewhere they are not supposed to be. Let a kid be a kid. He’s going to drink, he’s going to smoke and if he doesn’t do it in high school then he’s going to be a binge drinker in college.
“So apart from humiliating Matt….” - hehe, this is so true. Matt is going to be so paranoid from now on…
After parents begin dropping the tracking service because “kids won’t carry their cellphones or stash them away in a safe place”, to work around that “issue”, CATTRAX will move onto their next tracking solution offering - concealed tracking devices for kids! Thanks CATTRAX (and everyone else)!
ceo
Hmmm a couple of thoughts. First, most mobile phones in this category are for young children. Most teens won’t wear what their parents want them to wear, eat what they are supposed to eat and they certainly won’t carry around a tracking phone cos whatever their parent’s think is cool, ain’t. The phones are for young children. Age 5 and up.
And while the marketing campaigns target ‘the fear factor’, the reality is, its a great device for families that no longer are able to allow their kids to walk home from school for whatever reason. Perhaps the parents are seperated, and the school is in a distant zone from one of them? Perhaps both parents work and the designated driver is not in a position to always pick the kid up on time? The four buttons phones such as the iKids in Australia, allow the children to receive calls (I’m running late, wait in the library) or make calls (Johnny wants to show me his new guinea pig, can I go home with him?). The other stuff is a nice to have.
I’m betting that the only parents who buy due to ‘the fear factor’ are not so fearful of stranger danger but of ex-partners. Unfortunately its a growing concern - snatchings seem to happen by family members more than by pederasts. It’s not so much that an ex partner WILL snatch the kid, its the fear that it MIGHT happen. And that fear can be all-consuming. Peace of mind is not something that only nervous nellies seek, but anyone who has been through an acrimonious divorce. Thats the commercial reality behind these services.
And while Matt’s parents need an slap upside the head (there’s other ways of handling kids who go walkabout) the statement “All these child tracking ideas really do is heighten our state of fear as we try to live our lives - they don’t really solve anything. Life is inherently a risky business, but to focus on all the dangers is surely to miss the point. Life is for living, not cowering in fear. And therefore sometimes I think it is better not to know.” is disingenuous. Kids like mobile phones, kids want mobile phones, these type of phones offer peace of mind and communication in a world that no longer operates as a village but with a siege mentality. Unless you still sleep with your windows open and your doors unlocked and leave your bike unchained in the front yard, you have to recognise that in some parts of the world, these phones provide additional security. The world has changed…