Kid Geo Tags

[Rhyzur]

A very large group of kids in my neighborhood all get together and play at the local park. All age groups are present, and the older kids drop the kids off at the end of the day. We have a community chat with the parents. It is safe as can be. My daughter will be 7 at the end of the year. I've been looking at a few of different Geo Tag products for the Summer since it is the only 3 months a year it isn't raining, but I'm running into issues trying to find a good one that I know I'll be able to trust out of the box. I'm not asking for a specific product (if you have one on your mind, I would love to hear about it), but I'm looking for more of guidance on what to look for or even where to look. Amazon is great for something I know or expect to break anyways. I just don't want to order something like this unless I can hold it in my hand.

1. Kid won't wear it if they don't want to. I dare a gamer to get parental on me about that. Developers spend months to years developing mechanics and gamers spend more time trying to break them, then actually playing the game. And some kids? Depending on the severity, they deserve points for creativity rather than punishment.

2. Has to be durable/liquid proof because, kids. Outside.

3. Has to work for a few years.

Simple solution would be a phone, but she is still way too young for that.

[Rhyzur]

9 minutes ago, Arika S said:

Well this is your first hurdle. nothing else matters if you cannot solve this.

Is this just for your kid, or something that every parent wants to do as well?

A few of the parents of the little ones are all talking about what would be good options. This has been tried before with a couple kids, and a few minutes later, the necklace was off the kid and they were using the disc to play catch. Then it was left behind at the park.

9 minutes ago, Arika S said:

Either you tell her what it is for (before you buy anything) and see if she is agreeable. 

"hey, take this trinket with you every time you go out with the other kids, i'm not telling you what it is though". Kids are inquisitive and will ask the others what it is and likely one of the older ones will figure it out fairly quickly, which again, broken trust.

We've talked to her about it, and she understands and doesn't hate the concept, but yes. We will need to find something she likes. I'm still looking at different stores in the area that we can go to, and she can pick it out.

We never have lied to our kid unless it was something very serious and we didn't have all the information yet, and even then, she was aware that something was going on. Kids are way too smart than people give them credit for, and the smack in the face is often worse than if you just told them the truth in the beginning.

19 minutes ago, Arika S said:

unfortunately this is still going to be the best option

True. And they do make very durable type phones, but also being a girl, she doesn't have pockets in most of her pants. That's a few brews and a different topic thread right there though.

[Jtalk4456]

25 minutes ago, Arika S said:

unfortunately this is still going to be the best option that wouldn't arouse suspicion (though you are still tracing her without her knowing). You could set up parental controls on it that disables mobile data and wifi so it can't be used for anything but normal "phone" uses and GPS. Though GPS isn't even needed for this since it will just use the cellular connection to figure out where the phone is.

So I'm gonna slightly disagree here. the phone is certainly easy depending on age, but as a fellow parent I'm assuming that kidnapping is the concern here. I'd wager a kidnapper with half a brain will dump a phone quickly. Ideally what's needed is clothing based. If you're in an area or have a kid with a fashion sense where a jacket of some type is always being worn, or something with a zipper, what I'd like to do is either a tag as the zipper pull, decorated or covered to look like just a fancy zip , or a tag embedded in the jacket. a necklace can be lost easily, but the clothes will stay with the kid. I don't know what's available right now for this

[Rhyzur]

9 minutes ago, Jtalk4456 said:

what I'd like to do is either a tag as the zipper pull, decorated or covered to look like just a fancy zip

It would have to be easily moved and transferred. Different days require different coats around here. Unfortunately, if it is easily transferred, then it is easily removed. Generally the younger kids stay with their self assigned big kid, but sometimes they do love to wander.

 

14 minutes ago, Jtalk4456 said:

I don't know what's available right now for this

I'm having a problem trying to find this "perfect" solution as well.