Should you GPS TRACK your Children?

[themctipers]

no

 

how the fuck am i supposed to do ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) /s

 

actually, yes until the child is at a certain age (13 or so)

[idmb]

This has been my favourite LTT video in ages! 

 

This kinda sucks for kids with abusive parents who can no longer "escape," but it's awesome for parents that will feel more comfortable letting their kids roam free with it.  

[JCHelios]

Speaking as an American, I'm tentatively in favor of it. Better than never letting him go outside by himself, as so many parents nowadays are wont to do (despite the decades-long decline in crime rates). If it can make helicopter parents less paranoid and clingy, then it's probably worth it.  

The biggest risk is entrusting all that sensitive data about your child to... sorry, who did you say ran that Indiegogo campaign?  Kidnapster, Inc.?  

[poboxy]

This is utterly useless. Maybe this will help arrest a kidnapper or two but then it will be of no use as they will learn to check the kid for any kind of gimmick like this.

 

But let's put this in perspective, the chances for a kid being kidnapped are extremely slim and not warrant such measures. Kids are way way more likely to be abused by a person they know and who is trusted by the parents (if not the parents themselves). Keep the kids with some kind of bracelet with your address and phone number are more helpful than all this crap.

 

I hate these companies because they are taping on parents' fears.

[KenjiUmino]

4 hours ago, ScootsMcgoots said:

I could see this going wrong in  a myriad of ways.

same here - it's not just about parents abusing it ... if i understood correctly, this thing is sending data on the whereabouts of the device to a server wich provides all that data to an app ...

 

now what if a group of organised "kidnapsters" were to gain access to this server ...

 

heck, the whole idea of "safety" would straight up backfire because they could spy on kids all day long, research their daily routines and whatnot and it would not be long before they know wich route little sally is taking home from school every day and that she usually leaves the house again two hours after that to visit a friend 3 blocks away. 

 

and even if security of the system isn't compromised - with the technology becomming more widely known about and adopted it will become useless in a kidnapping situation because kidnapsters aren't stupid (well, some sure are but you know what i mean)

 

guess what would be the first thing they would be looking for once they finally got little sally under their tumb?

"hey girl, got any phones or gps toys on you?"

[deleted_member_030719]

George Carlin had a good joke about this saying something along the lines, "The kid that eats too many marbles doesn't live on to have kids of his own. Survival on the fittest."

 

[ARikozuM]

I could see this as a good thing for when parents go to the mall or amusement parks (or regular parks) and everyone wants to split into groups. Being able to keep everyone in touch if the GPS locater can be hidden is a good thing should someone get lost (or kidnapped).

 

Hell, my wife should probably get one of these for me when she goes shoe shopping. God, the shoes... Then again, I'm probably at the Lego store, the arcade playing pool, or the nearby tech stores. 

[DeleteMePls]

WOW! Holy nails those are some scary acrylics.

[iPolymer]

Isn't the iPhones find my friends used the same way? Instead of calling or texting to see where someone is, you just look and move on. 

[xnamkcor]

Children are second-class citizens and while crimes against them are considered extremely uncouth and have extended privacy rights, their rights as far as decisionmaking are more limited and the guardian of the child is given domain over the child. The child may not like it, but it is up to the guardian. Only in extreme cases where custody of the child is removed from the guardian is the guardian's ability to choose for the child removed.

 

We can all have our opinions on what a parent should or shouldn't do, but unless we get it passed into law(parents can't murder their children), it's up to the parent.

 

That said, They could improve it by having it work more like a PTT network. And making it more easily hideable on the person. Maybe record data while pressing the button. So, if the person fumbles for the talk button, what the mic pics up and the GPS location is logged. "Oi, blimey! I've been shot" <Long,Lat>.

 

This "can be" "abused", but any actions done to a non-consenting party with this device is already doable for cheaper. This is not new technology, it's just my parent/user friendly.

[Taf the Ghost]

They already tag Psych-ward patients in a lot of places, so this technology is going to get really common.

 

And, yes, there is a lot of room for abuse by helicopter parents.  But, to quote a guy I know, "yeah, but *I* have to sleep at night" when discussing some things he'd given his children, that's always the crux of the issue.

 

I would generally recommend against this unless you're in a nastier area OR you travel a lot.   I could think of a huge amount of utility for this when you're on vacation.

[arbitraryusername123]

If they have a phone and have data, isn't the built in features of find my (insert device name here) more useful than chucking money down the drain on such a tag? Isn't this already redundant? There are some cheap smartphones that could do just fine with the same functionality, perhaps even more, and still allow you to communicate effectively with your children.

[xnamkcor]

1 hour ago, arbitraryusername123 said:

If they have a phone and have data, isn't the built in features of find my (insert device name here) more useful than chucking money down the drain on such a tag? Isn't this already redundant? There are some cheap smartphones that could do just fine with the same functionality, perhaps even more, and still allow you to communicate effectively with your children.

And have the battery last less than one day instead of weeks? Sure. Having the GPS always on is not cheap battery-wise. Also, few phones will have physical buttons anymore, and less have one so easily pressable by a person who is effectively a mentally/physically challenged person.

[Fungal]

9 hours ago, trag1c said:

I hate helicopter parents. They create children that are inapt at everything they do. They possess no problem solving skills as there can be no problems to solve with helo parents. They never can fend for them selves or make any decisions on their own.

This may be a little off topic but I have a great example of this. So I was camping with my cousins, and so my cousin (who has the biggest helicopter parents) decided to cut her pancakes by herself, she cut her finger with a plastic butter knife and started crying..... She was 12....

[KuJoe]

I am getting one of these ASAP. @LinusTech made a statement in the video that convinced me to get one, if something ever happened that I could have prevented for $10/month I would never be able to live with myself.

[xnamkcor]

1 hour ago, KuJoe said:

I am getting one of these ASAP. @LinusTech made a statement in the video that convinced me to get one, if something ever happened that I could have prevented for $10/month I would never be able to live with myself.

What if they hire perverts to kidnap children in areas where sales are low to convince people they need it?

[mbryant]

13 hours ago, Natsoup said:

Taken too far. Kids won't be allowed to be kids anymore. I may only be 22, but if I had a gps strapped on me for all of my years before I left home, I would be a much less interesting person than I am now, that's for sure.

I disagree, I think this is perfect for children 4 - 8 years old. Especially when an 8 year old could simply clip it to their bag and not necessarily have it on their person at all times. Does it have a way to be abused? I'm sure it does, but what doesn't?

As for older children, 10 and up I feel that it may be a bit much and at that point, just get your kid a GO phone. I see the snow fox being very useful in cases where a parent takes their kid to a crowded public place like a mall or park. The security of your 3 - 8 year old is far more important than their "privacy" what the hell kind of private thing does a kid in that age range do anyway? Again I don't find this device "detrimental" to letting a kid be a kid until about 9 or 10 years of age. 

[KuJoe]

1 minute ago, xnamkcor said:

What if they hire perverts to kidnap children in areas where sales are low to convince people they need it?

Then a GPS device is the least of our problems as a species.

[mbryant]

3 hours ago, KuJoe said:

I am getting one of these ASAP. @LinusTech made a statement in the video that convinced me to get one, if something ever happened that I could have prevented for $10/month I would never be able to live with myself.

yeah that's the #1 right there. Everyone always says "if only I'd have done this" and you would certainly say so too if you saw this device and didn't get it. Better safe than sorry 

[SCHISCHKA]

if the technology is there you may as well use it. its 2016 and technology makes our lives easier. Whats better than this device is a cheap android phone. NZD$34 from the supermarket and they can make phone calls, play pokemon go etc.

[he10393]

In our main park, Kings Park which is huge and right in the centre of Perth a kid was playing last week and a guy ran up ,grabbed him and ran off!

The kid was screaming and the parents and others chased the guy who eventually dropped him and ran off into the bush.

Had this guy succeeded in snatching this kid a tracker might have been the only way locate him.

Once a kid is too big to be carried off and hopefully also has a bit of sense then probably a tracker would be going too far.

The guy has not yet been arrested!

[Tieox]

31 minutes ago, he10393 said:

In our main park, Kings Park which is huge and right in the centre of Perth a kid was playing last week and a guy ran up ,grabbed him and ran off!

The kid was screaming and the parents and others chased the guy who eventually dropped him and ran off into the bush.

Had this guy succeeded in snatching this kid a tracker might have been the only way locate him.

Once a kid is too big to be carried off and hopefully also has a bit of sense then probably a tracker would be going too far.

The guy has not yet been arrested!

 

And what will the first thing a kidnapper will ditch? and then the cops will waste time chasing down a signal left on a bus going the opposite side of the country.

 

 

[Freeman]

I'm pretty disappointed that Linus, as a motorcyclist, doesn't know this. GPS trackers with GSM modules have been used on motorcycles for years and they are pretty useless. A small GSM disruptor is cheap and easy to use, so even lowlife thieves have them. Also, stealing children is a bit more serious business, so I can't imagine those people not having them already.

The only small advantage the GPS tracker on a motorcycle provides, is that sometimes, the crooks will leave it out in the woods for a few days and check if somebody comes for it, because they are too lazy to actually look for the tracker. Unfortunately this is a bit difficult to do with a kids and the tracker is harder to hide, so the only real use is for over controlling parents who want to stalk their kids.

[Underi]

Maybe if they were young and unpredictable, easily lost in a city or a forest. But totally not when they are older. The pressure of knowing that your parents are watching where you go and what you do wouldn't be nice at all. I'm 15 and I have a moped, I can go wherever I want and there's no reason for my parents to track me. And probably if they grew older they would probably just remove it themselves eventually.

[LAwLz]

16 hours ago, corrado33 said:

And again, I'll note that times have changed. Back in the day neighborhoods looked after each other. If people saw a kid crying on the side of the road, they stopped and asked what was wrong. Now-a-day that'd almost never happen. People were nicer back in the day. At least that's how the media has portrayed it. I wouldn't know for sure, I wasn't there.

 

I grew up surrounded by farms. I played in the woods my whole childhood.

Crime rates has been going down for a long time now (might be going back up though, I am not sure about the last  ~2 years). So "back in the day" violent crimes were more common than they are today.

It was MORE dangerous in the old days.

 

People nowadays are just very overprotective. We are safer now than ever, but people think it is more dangerous.

 

 

13 hours ago, Razor512 said:

It needs to be redesigned to have 2 hot-swap batteries, and a built in tazer

Yes, because giving a taser to a child is a very safe and responsible thing to do. Why not give them a gun while you're at it? Then they can really defend themselves.

 

 

5 hours ago, KuJoe said:

I am getting one of these ASAP. @LinusTech made a statement in the video that convinced me to get one, if something ever happened that I could have prevented for $10/month I would never be able to live with myself.

Except this won't prevent anything. This is a reactive device, not a proactive one. So unless you plan on looking at it every single minute your child is out, at best you will get a message that if you start traveling right now, you will only be 10 minutes behind the abductor! Assuming the abductor doesn't just take this massive and clearly visible GPS tracker and throws it away, in which case you will be sitting at home thinking your child is safe while it is being taken away.

 

By the way, your child is as likely to be hit by lighting as it is being kidnapped. Are you going to equip your child with a grounded lighting rod too? That costs less than 10 dollars a month and will protect your child more than this device does.