Tagging and tracking your kids via GPS..

Bustacapp

I personally see no argument against tagging and tracking your kids via GPS if they are of an age of say <10 yrs old. Sometimes you can be the most vigilant of parents yet one blip and your kid can go missing. The recent hysteria about Madeleine McCann reminded me of how much a GPS tracker may help in certain circumstances. My son is of the age now where he wants to play out. I tell him to stay on the front where I can see him but now and again he wanders off course a little and I'm straight out reeling him back in. I sometimes wonder how useful it would be to have a tracker installed onto him, with boundaries set in which an alarm is sounded should boundaries be breached. It would give the both of us a little more freedom, and not the opposite as some might assume. I have some software on my phone which tracks my wife's movements (bear with me). She has the same android device as me and we both use software that notifies me when she leaves the house on the school run, and when she arrives at work safely. I think it's brilliant and gives me a bit of peace of mind knowing that she got to work and dropped the kids off (presumably) safe and sound. Some people tend to disagree with my methods of staying abreast of my families movements, but I can't see it as anything other than being more convenient than calling her up and asking if she got to work ok etc..

Am I a control freak or what?

daviesee

Yes.

Bustacapp

Thanks.

bianchimoon

No, you just care about your kids. my kids both have iphone so i can check where they are, and they can check where i am, they don't particulaly like it but since i'm paying for them it's a condition of use

bianchimoon

re the boundaries, a friend had a loop fitted in his large garden that gave his dog a shock from 2 prongs on its collar if it went within a few inches of it.. that is shocking and cruel i thought

seanoconn

That's actually a brilliant idea busta, I'm stealing the patent as we speak.

I'm not sure it's legal yet but I could try my local vet and see if they'll have a go.

rolf_f

The next generation are going to be so crap!

the playing mantis

what sort of world do we live in that it has come to this. where has the england of my boyhood gone.

its so sad.

daviesee

Bustacapp wrote:

Thanks.

Welcome.

bianchimoon

i agree with all of the above, but it's useful for so many things, can see when the school bus is delayed before picking them up, if they're out riding across fields, have an accident will know where they are, once wife got lost in car, could see where she was and give her directions. If i'm late on a ride, they know where i am and that i'm moving...

Bustacapp

bianchimoon wrote:

re the boundaries, a friend had a loop fitted in his large garden that gave his dog a shock from 2 prongs on its collar if it went within a few inches of it.. that is shocking and cruel i thought

lol

Bustacapp

the playing mantis wrote:

what sort of world do we live in that it has come to this. where has the england of my boyhood gone.

its so sad.

I'll tell you what is sad - knowing that Myra Hindley and Ian Brady may have been scuppered back in the 'good old days' should such technology had been available and put to use.

daviesee

http://www.tracking-system.com/for-cons ... ldren.html

dr2506

As a family we use Life360. It works on all our phone and we can see where we all are. Helped a few times when my 1 years has lost his phone.

Wife uses it to track when I am heading back from a ride as I often can't here it ring when out in a head wind. I often ride alone so it good to know they could find me if anything happened.

the playing mantis

Bustacapp wrote:

the playing mantis wrote:

what sort of world do we live in that it has come to this. where has the england of my boyhood gone.

its so sad.

I'll tell you what is sad - knowing that Myra Hindley and Ian Brady may have been scuppered back in the 'good old days' should such technology had been available and put to use.

that is true

why do we have to go these lengths as such people exist per se. why are people so f***ed in the head

one day there will be orwellianesque mental screening. would that be a bad thing?

daviesee

dr2506 wrote:

As a family we use Life360. It works on all our phone and we can see where we all are. Helped a few times when my 1 years has lost his phone.

Wife uses it to track when I am heading back from a ride as I often can't here it ring when out in a head wind. I often ride alone so it good to know they could find me if anything happened.

GiantMike

When I was a kid (10-13 years old?) I can remember being sent out in the morning so my parents could go to work over the school holidays. I'd go to play with my mates and come back home when my mum got home from work. I had some money for lunch, a BMX and a sense of adventure. I'd probably cover 5-10 miles a day, play in the woods or on the roads, go swimming etc and I considered it entirely normal. This was in the days before mobile phones but I knew where my mum worked and I think I knew her phone number. The contract we had was that I didn't get into trouble and came home at the right time, and she'd not bother me. It was great.

I feel sorry for today's internet generation with their iPhones, laptops, facebook etc. I sure there was more risk then than there is now, we just didn't consider it.

the playing mantis

GiantMike wrote:

When I was a kid (10-13 years old?) I can remember being sent out in the morning so my parents could go to work over the school holidays. I'd go to play with my mates and come back home when my mum got home from work. I had some money for lunch, a BMX and a sense of adventure. I'd probably cover 5-10 miles a day, play in the woods or on the roads, go swimming etc and I considered it entirely normal. This was in the days before mobile phones but I knew where my mum worked and I think I knew her phone number. The contract we had was that I didn't get into trouble and came home at the right time, and she'd not bother me. It was great.

I feel sorry for today's internet generation with their iPhones, laptops, facebook etc. I sure there was more risk then than there is now, we just didn't consider it.

indeed, same here and im reffering to the mid/early 90's when i was. obviously there was risk then, but has the advent of the interbnet age casued more risk, or are sickos just sickoes?

daviesee

the playing mantis wrote:

indeed, same here and im reffering to the mid/early 90's when i was. obviously there was risk then, but has the advent of the interbnet age casued more risk, or are sickos just sickoes?

The internet age has raised awareness. Thats all.
Same risks. Same dangers. More fears. Less fun.

Mikey23

And creating a demand where none had previously existed by highlighting a risk which does not even exist. Someone will make money...

Not something I feel particularly strongly about... You can If you want but I won't

Pross

the playing mantis wrote:

what sort of world do we live in that it has come to this. where has the england of my boyhood gone.

its so sad.

It never existed. It's just our parents were bad and never gave a toss what happened to us. "Go and play out in the street and with a bit of luck you'll get run over" or "why don't you go out and play in the park and hopefully Mr Paedo down the road will take you off our hands"

goonz

dr2506 wrote:

Wife uses it to track when I am heading back from a ride so she can start to get my lunch ready in time for when I am home.

ftfy

mamba80

Bustacapp wrote:

the playing mantis wrote:

what sort of world do we live in that it has come to this. where has the england of my boyhood gone.

its so sad.

I'll tell you what is sad - knowing that Myra Hindley and Ian Brady may have been scuppered back in the 'good old days' should such technology had been available and put to use.

I think you are paranoid - the most dangerous thing you do with your kids is driving them about, how many are killed in RTAs compared to abductions?
You have to look at averages - how many people of the total who leave home for work nevr get there? are murdered or kidnapped and sold into slavery ? again, compare that to RTA's
Yes children go missing and are killed but if someone wants your kids, they ll take them regardless, do what-ever and leave you with a gps position of their body.
Kids need to understand risk and danger, learn the difference and make judgement calls, your not going to be around forever....or have you an app for that also?

verylonglegs

Er, put me down as another one who thinks it's taking things too far, like mamba I doubt your wifes daily routine is really that fraught with risk.

bianchimoon

I may be wrong, but he didn't say it was, was more talking about tracking as a useful tool, doesn't have to be a dark or sinister side to it

daviesee

bianchimoon wrote:

I may be wrong, but he didn't say it was, was more talking about tracking as a useful tool, doesn't have to be a dark or sinister side to it

Thats what THEY want you too think.

bianchimoon

(checks over shoulder - and under desk) shhh they'll know you've rumbled them

ballysmate

When my lad was little, we 'lost' him in Toys R Us. We are talking perhaps a minute at most, but frantic doesn't come close to conveying the panic my wife and I felt. So get the little feckers chipped and install one of the security sensors you see in sop doorways. That way if they wander out the garden, the alarm goes off, and if they wander out of a shop, the security staff grab em.

daviesee

Ballysmate wrote:

When my lad was little, we 'lost' him in Toys R Us. We are talking perhaps a minute at most, but frantic doesn't come close to conveying the panic my wife and I felt. So get the little feckers chipped and install one of the security sensors you see in sop doorways. That way if they wander out the garden, the alarm goes off, and if they wander out of a shop, the security staff grab em.

Can you imagine how the McCann's feel?

ballysmate

daviesee wrote:

Ballysmate wrote:

When my lad was little, we 'lost' him in Toys R Us. We are talking perhaps a minute at most, but frantic doesn't come close to conveying the panic my wife and I felt. So get the little feckers chipped and install one of the security sensors you see in sop doorways. That way if they wander out the garden, the alarm goes off, and if they wander out of a shop, the security staff grab em.

Can you imagine how the McCann's feel?

No I can't. It would be beyond comprehension. Would be torturing myself, knowing I shouldn't have left the kids alone.

Bustacapp

mamba80 wrote:

I think you are paranoid - the most dangerous thing you do with your kids is driving them about, how many are killed in RTAs compared to abductions?

I openly admit I am more paranoid than most. I worry about RTA's too which is why the phone tracker (life 360) I have can provide me with updates on whereabouts etc.

mamba80 wrote:

Yes children go missing and are killed but if someone wants your kids, they ll take them regardless, do what-ever and leave you with a gps position of their body.
Kids need to understand risk and danger, learn the difference and make judgement calls, your not going to be around forever....or have you an app for that also?

I disagree with this. If I get notified that my child has left the designated area then I can get after him straight away. No I don't have an app for when I am dead, but then they would (hopefully I'll still be around) be fuilly grown adults by then.