Thursday, Jul 24, 2008
Alarmed by screaming headlines about abducted and abused children, more and more parents are using technology to keep tabs on their kids. But are satellite-linked stuffed animals and I.D.-encoded clothing a sign of parental responsibility -- or paranoia?
Jul 25, 2005 | For the past two years, Jason and Ashley Pratt, ages 15 and 13, have had an unusual nanny. ULocate -- a Java program that has been downloaded onto their Nextel mobile phones -- pairs with GPS satellites to track the kids' location 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and relays their movements to their parents over a secure Internet site and via cellphone alerts. Every time the children leave a 400-foot radius around their home or school, their father, Tom Pratt, gets a message notifying him they have exited their "geofence." "That way we can call them up and make sure they're OK," explains his wife, Nicky Pratt, from the family's Garden City, N.Y., home. "Some people think we're awful - they say things like, 'How can you follow your kids?' -- but the fact is, they're my kids, and it's my preference. And when I think of what just happened to that poor girl in Idaho, I know that this is the way it has to be."
The Pratts are hardly alone in their anxiety. "To be perfectly honest, after looking at the sex offender map online, it's impossible not to be concerned about my family's safety," says David Gomillion, a 26-year-old information technology director from Bay County, Fla. "There are predators everywhere -- across the street, down the road, literally hundreds within a couple miles and thousands within a dozen miles." Though his son is only 11 months old, Gomillion has already begun researching the kid-tracker market to prepare for the day when his son is more mobile. "I've tried a few products and I'm not convinced the technology is there yet," he says. "But it's certainly the right idea."
The urge to protect one's children is a primal instinct, but even the most devoted parent cannot watch over a child every single second of the day -- nor, many would argue, should they. And despite what you might have thought when you were 5, your mother does not have eyes in the back of her head. But where biology has failed, technology provides a solution. Over the past two years a flood of state-of-the-art child-surveillance systems has arrived on the consumer market. Equipped with wireless, radio and GPS technology, these battery-operated babysitters promise to act in loco parentis, keeping constant watch over thousands of children around the globe.
A decade ago, concerned parents turned to static-riddled baby monitors and bright nylon kid leashes to keep tabs on their children. Now moms and dads with the financial wherewithal can outfit their offspring with satellite-linked gizmos, stuffed animals with eerie electric eyes, and chips that know how fast and in what direction a car is moving. In February, the officials at Brittan Elementary School in Sutter, Calif., caused an uproar in the community when they began requiring all students to wear encoded RFID (radio frequency identification) tags while on school grounds. But children's clothing designer Lauren Scott of California appears to have taken that controversy in stride -- announcing last week that the company has partnered with SmartWear Technologies to launch a line of pajamas embedded with RFID tags. Target has already placed an order and expects to begin carrying the sleepwear early next year. Recently, the tracking devices' saturation point in pop culture seemed to arrive during an episode of Hulk Hogan's new VH1 reality show, "Hogan Knows Best," when the Hulk himself decided to surreptitiously install a GPS device in his 16-year-old daughter's car so he could keep an eye on her while she went out with a much older date.
Combining the status and allure of innovative gadgetry with feel-good family values, companies like Wherify Wireless, Teen Arrive Alive , uLocate, Digital Angel and DriveDiagnostics stand to make millions playing off the anxieties of parents. If it all sounds a bit too much like science fiction, well, welcome to our strange new world -- where control and peace of mind are commodities parents can pick up at the mall, along with designer strollers and diaper bags.
"It's hardly surprising that families respond to these products," says Frank Schroth, a spokesman for uLocate, the Massachusetts-based company whose programs allow small businesses, and consumers like the Pratts, to track people and property using standard cellphones. "They give parents the satisfaction of knowing that even though work and commitments take them away from their children, they can still keep an eye on them."
Indeed, according a study by the U.S. government's Council of Economic Advisors, between 1969 and 1999, working couples lost an average of 22 hours of "family time" each week. And as greater numbers of parents choose careers over full-time parenting, they may internalize feelings of fear and guilt about leaving their children in the hands of babysitters and daycare workers. The marketing minds behind the child-tracking industry know this -- and have created products that give the illusion of keeping a family close in touch, without requiring any attendant sacrifices to career or lifestyle. If they're willing to fork over more than $800 for GPS Kid Locator Tracker Backpack to carry Johnny's schoolbooks, his mom and dad can stay connected to him all day long -- if only virtually -- from their car or cubicle. "What we have are very technology-savvy parents who are focused on having all the right products for their kids, and the right school, and everything else," explains Dr. Helen Boehm, a board member of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the author of "Fearless Parenting for the New Millenium." "And the fact is, they will go to great lengths to have additional control -- or at least the perception of additional control."
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