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lbs tracking services: stalking with a smile?

cat trax graphic

Would you want to track the whereabouts of your kids or significant other using a mobile tracking system tied to your loved one’s personal device? As a concerned parent trying to give your offspring a bit of freedom from constant calls, finding out if your child arrived at school safely, or if she was hanging out at a friend’s home for the night using GPS tracking might bring you the peace-of-mind you’ve been looking for. Services such as Sprint Family Locator and Disney Mobile’s Family Locator allow for visual tracking of your family’s digital devices – using GPS technology to pinpoint location with amazing accuracy unless you’re inside of a mall or a concrete parking lot. Disney states ‘accuracy within 10 yards’ which is pretty incredible.

The location-based service Cat TRAX operated by CATS (Child Alert Tracking Service) takes proximity to another level by tracking the known whereabouts of known sex offenders and alerts you if your child is within range of an offender’s home. The service allows you to ‘Monitor your children on their way to and from school, running errands, and at play.’ According to their stats, nearly every 40 seconds, a child is reported missing. But operating on a worst case, fear basis seems a bit extreme – however recently a friend in Seattle did receive a call from local authorities after they found her 9-year old daughter profiled in their neighbor ‘Dave’s’ home. Freaky. This service is offered at $19.99 per month through Sprint’s Network using Motorola phones.

Talking to actual parents reveals some interesting insights.

Wherify is a company that has been around for a while – nearly 5 years. They started with a wristwatch device that allowed for kids to be tagged and tracked with ease. While this wristwatch device may have been ahead of its time and is no longer offered by the service, the concept was a smart one and parents are now searching for solutions that allow the safety and security of knowing where their kids are without the heavy technical investment or privacy invading open sharing of personal data. Wherify released a Wherifone, which uses a web site to act as the ‘hub’ and tracks the whereabouts of family members using ‘locates’ as ‘minutes.’ The technology is sound and has been used for several years. Their mobile phone for kids has a limited set of buttons that can be pre-programmed for ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ and an emergency button to call 911 if needed. This service targets 7 – 11 year olds.

LBS (location based systems) using GPS for tracking has a multitude of uses from the trucking and transport industry to the pet industry. This introduction of LBS into personal and family life is an interesting move forward – however are families ready for the shift? Is this considered a luxury to be able to track, or is it an invasion of privacy? Is the tracking accurate enough in urban areas and are their kids going to be OK with the lack of privacy in return for the liberty of having a mobile device of their own?

Posted on June 15th, 2006 in Thoughts
Tagged as No Tags
Written by Kelly Goto

7 Responses to “lbs tracking services: stalking with a smile?”

Comments

  1. Liz says:
    June 15th, 2006

    I’m just glad that MY parents never had access to anything like this ;-). This strikes me as a huge invasion of privacy. I hope I never feel the need to succomb to it with my own kids (though when my kids are 16 and sneaking out at night to meet the people they met on whatever the new “myspace” is, I may be tempted). zug

  2. Joe Pemberton says:
    June 15th, 2006

    Thanks for bringing in the research to this, instead of just ranting (as others have done with the same topic). Interesting stuff.

    Calling it “stalking” is a good way to make a catchy headline, but is this really stalking when we’re talking about people’s own children? Hardly. Liz, it’s only “invasion of privacy” when it’s intrusion. There’s nothing intrusive about knowing where your kids are.

    Cheers from a parent whos child wants her own phone. =)

  3. mobilejones says:
    June 15th, 2006

    The foundation of any good and workable relationship is trust. A concern for parents should be in building a self-sufficient, confident and trustworthy kid. Most parents are strapped with increasing workplace demands versus time with their kids. Lots of kids end up with mobile phones through guilt purchases or the need of a busy parent to feel secure that they can reach their child.

    These services play to the worst fears and tendencies of people and parents. Your child is not “more safe” because you can track them. They are more safe if they have the skills to be self-sufficient and confident.

    As for the research angle, consider that more, by several degrees of magnitude, kids are harmed by people that they know and even within their family than are harmed by stranger danger. If selling to fear and some how abdicating your parental responsibility to a telco is your thing, you may be in for a surprise there too.

    Kids will gladly accept your gift of a mobile phone and spend about 5 to 10 mins on the web or with a friend learning how to disable the tracking capability. And so it goes.

  4. Kelly Goto says:
    June 15th, 2006

    Maintaining self-sufficient and confident kids is definitely first and foremost, and most parents will agree. Disabling the tracking ability of a LBS device is not as much of the issue as buying into the privilege of having a mobile phone in the first place. Meaning parents are hoping the trust goes both ways, if their kids are allowed to have a device and make calls, they also have to agree to the terms and conditions, which in this case include being able to ‘locate’ the carrier. I believe most LBS-companies and saavy parents are aware of the great lengths teens will go to maintain their freedom, to lie about their whereabouts and/or sneak away to parties and friends’ houses.

    So trust goes both ways - parents hoping that their kids will not lie about their whereabouts, and also will be honest about carrying their devices and not ‘tricking’ or disabling the location-tracking feature.

    For younger kids, having a digital tether to their parents allows a greater sense of freedom to both - knowing the parent can reach the child at any time and if need be pinpoint the exact whereabouts. And to Joe’s point above - it is only stalking or intrusive if it is without consent. As with anything, the extreme case is paranoia and fear, and hopefully these parents will gain some peace-of-mind with new location-based services.

  5. Child_Safety_Products says:
    June 15th, 2006

    Information on GPS Child Locator Products at http://www.giftsonic.com/gps/gps-child-locator.htm

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