Tracking Your Kids?

I absolutely trust my children, it’s just the of the rest of the world I have issues with. But I would like to qualify that statement and say I wouldn't utilize it to know track them like a convict on house arrest. If I was unable to reach them on their cell, I'd definately utilize the "find my child" feature.

I just upgraded my husband's phone today and his new phone comes with that feature...it's not just tracking your kids...it's tracking your family....feels creepy to me to have my husband be able to tell where I am at every moment of the day.

How in the world did we all grow up to be middle aged when our parents didn't have a tracking device on us? OMG if my Mom knew everything I did she would have locked me up forever....but those life mistakes I made...well...they taught me a lot that I would not know now if I hadn't been allowed to make those mistakes.

JMO

I think that a lot of this comes from the media sensationalizing violence. You need to know the facts of your neighborhood. I used to sneak out of my house at 3 am and walk around my town just because my parents wouldn't give me any freedom. I never got kidnapped. I never got abducted and sold to the sex trade. I understand your feeling Tishie but I really feel that some of your fears are a little irrational. Mostly because I used to have those fears and my T flat out told me that I was being irrational. So I went to a self defense class and learned the facts.

Most people who are kidnapped/raped - it is done by someone they know.

Typically when people rob a place with a gun, they have no intention of actually using it. They're usually too scared to even know how to use it.

You cannot get straight facts except to go and ask police. Some sites say violence has gone down since the 70s and some say it has gone up since then.

You say its not because you don't trust your kids, you just don't trust the other people? So why not give them the power to defend themselves? That's just teaching them to live a life of fear. I know that, even though any guy who is going to mug me is most likely going to be bigger than me, I know exactly what to do in that situation. I have been tested with 2 policemen running at me attacking me and I beat the crap out of both of them (for the class of course).

One time I was standing on the sidewalk in a town I had never been to before, by myself, a guy came up to me and put his arm around me and tried to walk away with me so I punched him dead in the chest screamed at him until someone came and took him away and I walked back inside.

I am not defenseless, neither are your children. Teach them, don't scare them.

Susan - YES!!! Oh my god, how has the human race survived without hand sanitizer and tracking devices?

Anyone remember lawn darts?! We used to stand in the yard and throw darts at each other........but we can't be safe riding our bikes down the sidewalk?

I always think its hilarious that people think some of these things are necessary. Because the human race didn't exist for over 200,000 years before the invention of all this crap.

I'm not even talking about preditors. I would most likely use this in a situation where my child (or husband) was due to be home and not called to say they were detained and I am unable to reach them.

I think I would like this feature more to find my phone since I'm constantly losing the stupid thing.

Chip your kids?? That just feels so wrong on so many levels. No offense meant, but I won't chip my dog. My dog (he's 10) knows where his home is, where he is taken care of (and he has gotten loose) without me tracking him with a chip.....he knows to come home and he always does.

OMG!!! We LOVED lawn darts!!!! LOL!!!

My pets are all chipped because the shelter required it before I could take them home but I don't think I would have done it otherwise. My dog, Lucy, had hers placed wrong so they can't even find it anymore. They did it wrong so now it's almost down by her belly. So if she ever did get picked up, they would look for it at her shoulders and wouldn't even find it.

I second that motion. All in favor say "Aye!"

But seriously, I think teaching the child self-defense, or at least who to go to when they're in trouble, is better than low-jacking your kid to some security network. I teach my kids "stranger danger" which I think I got off some movie. My 5-year-old, when confronted by a very unfortunate looking woman, screamed "stranger danger" right in the grocery store and got into a fighting stance. Needless to say, the woman promptly left the scene. I was no more than 5 feet away the whole time. But, if I wasn't for some reason (say he got lost in Disneyland), he knows what to do. And they actually teach kids what to do if they get lost in most children's self-defense classes.

Besides, if the "tracker chip" is in the cell phone which you are willingly giving to your children, why don't you just program your phone number in and teach your child how to call you if they get lost?

I feel the same way. I'm thinking especially of this technology being taken too far and being misused, which we all know will happen eventually, and probably already is.

Not to mention the health risks...

I think you are a little confused, strangers or someone you know ?

I trust my children however do NOT trust the world its an evil/dangerous place as salukiegirl found out nearly to her cost.

I will/do teach my children about the dangers of the world and also family members its not stranger danger its human danger, we cant even trust other kids !

Nope I would rather be able to remove that panicking moment and be able to find my kids IF they were to go missing.

Its not tracking their every moment I am not interested in doing that and would point that out to my children, its for their safety only.

I really like and respect everyone who's posting on this thread and I personally have a lot of problems with paranoia. But as several people pointed out, somehow I managed to live to 34 without being kidnapped. I played with yard darts, played on the nice metal slides and merry go rounds at the park way before they put down a soft carpet of rubber under it all and made everything out of plastic. The world is not over run by lunatics bent on kidnapping every child they see. I've lived in a big city and I've lived in tiny towns. Either way, I don't think there is a kidnapper at every corner. I mean really, call your local pd and ask them the kidnapping rate and then find out how many of those (which will probably be very few, if not non-existant) were taken by their parents from the other parent. I promise the rates of straight up child abduction are nearly nil for most everyone of us in the places we live. I am far more afraid of bad drivers hurting my son than a kidnapper. All phones have a locating type capability that is just inherent in being a cell phone. It isn't exact down to a specific co-ordinate, but they get pretty close. If your kid goes missing, you can have the phone company do this tower search for you and help. As others have pointed out, if your child is kidnapped the abductor is going to take the phone and ditch it immediately, so all the phone company is doing is feeding on your fears to earn money (surprise, surprise!). I'd like to see some statistics of how often these features are actually used to help stop a crime or kidnapping. I'm just guessing, but I'd bet not too often.

And as far a physically putting a chip into my child, absolutely NO WAY.

Statistics show that kids are most likely harmed by someone they know and trust. Strangers are rarely the problem. The problem with the whole "stranger danger" movement is that kids learn that only strangers are a problem, when in actuality, it is a family member most likely to be the issue.

Getting back to the original topic of the tracking devise in the cell phone goes. If everyone in the family has a cell phone, can't you just call or text them to find out where they are? Seems like a silly device to me.

Probably the most scared I ever was though was when we were at an outdoor concert with family. My son had wandered over to a tree just behind us to play but was within our sight. Next time we looked, he wasn't there. We looked for him. They made announcements for him to come to the stage. Police were called in. I was holding it together until I had to hand the police a photo of him. But the police found him pretty quickly. He had gone with some other kids to a playground nearby. He tells me now, "But mom, a playground with a train going right by it! How cool was that!" He was just being a curious kid but it scared the pants off of us. If he had had a beeper or cell phone at that moment, I would have given a million dollars for it. It is at those kind of moments that you desparately want to know where your child is. (This was really before people started carrying cell phones though.) Murphy's Law: If a kid is going to get lost, it won't be when they are off on their own; it will be when they were in an arm reach of their parents.

My son didn't have a cell phone until he started driving. No need for it before then. In the summer when my kids are out running around, we have some really good walkie-talkies that they take with them so we can call them home if we need to. That works really well.

I'm really not worried about my children being abducted by a stranger; my husband worries more about that kind of thing than I do. I have talked to them about not going into houses of friends that we don't know. I DO worry about things like guns not being locked up, etc. That's a more realistic concern. Some people don't have much common sense. We've talked about it.

I'm not going to keep my kids on a leash. The world is NOT an evil place, at least not in our little part of the world. It's a shame that some kids grow up being taught that it is. I'd rather my kids get to explore and have friends and the freedom to roam the neighborhood with their friends. They know the rules about checking in and when to be home and how far they can go, etc.

I am not paranoid I am not keeping my kids on a leash (heck I live on a farm in the middle of nowhere so my kids are safer than most)

This is just a conversation on what we would or would not like to do with our kids......

I (given the choice) would use a chip but as I stated earlier they dont have one as a) I couldnt afford it and b) hubby wouldnt allow it.

There is a danger of a stranger taking your kids ie the statement stranger danger. Talk to any of the parents whose children have been taken and I would lay money on them saying yes they wish they had chipped their children.

As for not chipping your dog well I don't agree (does not mean I am calling you a bad dog owner) as they cant talk and loads of dogs HAVE been stolen, I can show you a site that is dedicated to just that including one dedicated to children having been taken.

Its my opinion and I have a right to stand by that if I choose, it does not make me a bad parent for wanting to chip my kids it does not make me a parent who has not taught my children self defence it does not make me a parent who has made my children fearful of the world !

All the sweeping statements and implications ! Not impressed....

Tishie, I for one was not directing my comments to you directly, but at the general discussion as a whole. Has anyone here called you a bad parent? We may not agree with you, but that doesn't equate to calling you a bad parent.

Here are the statistics:


National Child Kidnapping Facts

99.8% of the children who go missing do come home.

• Nearly 90% of missing children have simply misunderstood directions or miscommunicated their plans, are lost, or have run away.
• 9% are kidnapped by a family member in a custody dispute.
• 3% are abducted by non-family members, usually during the commission of a crime such as robbery or sexual assault. The kidnapper is often someone the child knows.
• Only about 100 children (a fraction of 1%) are kidnapped each year in the stereotypical stranger abductions you hear about in the news.
• About half of these 100 children come home.

How old are the kids we're talking about? I'm imagining like 5 and 6-year-olds, but I can't see 5/6-year-olds having cell phones without completely destroying them.

I teach them about family members and friends too, or rather what behavior is inappropriate and what to do in that situation. I tend to keep them away from suspicious family members anyway. And ... just because stranger danger is less likely to happen, that doesn't mean it never happens.

Furthermore, I'd like to add that cell phones with E911 capability already have a low-jack system that is a homing device for you/your child's every move, whether you want it or not. However, only the government and cell phone companies use it, unless you/your child dial "911". In which case, the cell phone company will triangulate you/your child's location so the police can more easily find you/your child.

Stranger abduction IS rare. Abduction is relatively rare. But if it happened to one of your kids, it wouldn’t make you feel a bit better that they’re one of a small group. Just because something rarely happens doesn’t mean a person shouldn’t do anything within their power to prevent it. House fires are rare, I have homeowners insurance. Death can only happen once, I have life insurance. I have never had a vehicle stolen, yet I have car insurance and On star has the ability to cut the power to my vehicle.

Most people will live their entire lives without having need of the fire department, police department or ambulance services. Yet I can’t think of a single person that would declare them unnecessary.

It’s very silly to compare modern day life with that even 100 years ago. You cannot compare apples to oranges. With new technology new dangers are introduced. 40 years ago, many families still did not own vehicles; today most families own at least one. With this increase in cars on the roads, the risk of accidents goes up exponentially.

Salukigirl – I have no idea where you grew up so I cannot comment on the conditions there. I live in an extremely safe, comfortable village. I know that there is no time of the day or night that guarantees our safety, but I also know that 3 am is bar time and that is the time I would be the least comfortable with my kids being out of the house walking the streets. I would also prefer them not to run around with a metal pole during a lightening storm. It’s not likely that they’ll be struck by lightening, but why tempt fate?

A chip being embedded in a child is far more dangerous than the risk of them being abducted by murderers/rapists/kidnappers/human trafficking employees. It's a foreign object, so there's a risk of the body rejecting it. And then there's a risk of infection from the surgery. The chip, being metal and submitting radio signals, would severely interfere with xrays. MRIs would be inaccessible unless they removed the chip.

I don't know about you, but I have two unruly boys who are much more likely to get a broken arm or concussion than be abducted by someone.

Not to mention those murderers/rapists/kidnappers/human trafficking employees will take that chip out anyway.

The only real use for it is if they pull a Stand by Me and go searching for a dead body to poke. I did that with my friends as a child, and I always came back.

I had to giggle at this. With me and my friends it was rock hunting. Not nearly as adventurous, but we could be gone for hours.

Trigger Warning - mentions a near SA



I'm completely against children and teenagers using cellphones on a regular basis. Many countries other than N. America have safety warnings and don't recommend cellphones because it's unknown whether it causes brain cancer. I also don't think the average person should use them too much. My husband has had one since the 1st huge one was invented and a Blackberry since they came out. He has the WORST posture and his neck is permanately, angled forward - from looking down and typing endlessly.

I really think that locating cell phone they advertise, is targeting to the parent who is worried about their teenager hanging out and having sex. I don't think it's practical for safety reasons unless their child has a car accident where they're unconcious.

Trigger:

I wanted to make a point on teaching children about potential assaualt. I made sure to educate my girls to be aware of strangers but also anyone who you're familiar with - like a family member, Dad's best friend, your friends relatives, anyone who you know. I role play and say " what if you're riding your bike and your dad's friend says he'll drive you home". What would you do? I think it's could for children to respect aduts but I also told them, respect flies out the window when you feel unsafe - I told them don't be afraid to speak up and be rude. My 12 yr old will be getting her black belt soon in Karate. I teach my kids this because I had a very close call with my BIL when I was 13. I'll never forget that feeling of shock - for a split second not knowing what to say or do. Luckily my instincts kicked in. My mom did teach me about stranger danger but she failed to warn me that a person so familiar to me, might want to hurt me. So I make sure my girls KNOW that it's okay to be boldly rude and loud to anyone who makes them feel threatened including that very nice person, who they might think is great.