Protection or Smothering: GPS Tracking and Your Children

By Greg Bartlett

The recent years have seen a rise in the popularity of GPS tracking to protect assets like cars and electronics. As the market plateaus, however, companies offering these services have begun to market to parents concerned with child abduction.

GPS tracking works through the device communicating with satellites. Three satellites are used to triangulate the approximate location of an item or in this case a child. The technology is very accurate and in the event of a missing child could allow emergency personnel to quickly find and return the child home. There are shortcomings, however. To be effective, the tracker needs to have “line of sight” to the three satellites, thus if they are taken into a home with a metal roof, or underground parking structure the device may not function as effectively.

The size of GPS tracking devices allow for them to be sewn into a pocket of your child’s backpack, that way in the nightmare scenario that your child becomes lost or is abducted you will be able to quickly track them down. The question is does placing a tracking device on your child protect them or smother them?

This comes back to the old debate, “If it would rid the world of terrorism, would you give up your civil rights for a day? For two?” The protection of our children is the primary concern of parents the world over, but where does it end. GPS tracking definitely makes sense for very young children. But what will be the magic age when parents will inform their children that their every move has been monitored? Is there not a danger that it won’t end? Should the concern shift from protecting the child from strangers in their youth to protecting them from themselves in their teen years?

Another factor to be considered is where this technology could lead in the future. After all, since everyone wants to protect their children could it not become standard for a GPS microchip to be implanted at birth? What was once the realm of science fiction is now closing in on reality. If this happens, will children know about their chips? When will they be allowed to remove them? What data will be collected and who will have access to it?

Perhaps, this is paranoid, but these questions need to be asked. Can parents increase the safety of their children with GPS tracking? Yes, of course. But the costs of such action must also be considered. Children need to be given room to grow and make decisions for themselves, both good and bad.

Tags: backpacks, child, children, community, emergency, lost, parent, parents, safety