Stalking your kids with Google Latitude
Is tracking your kids with Google Latitude a good way to make sure your kids are safe and staying out of trouble, or is it simply taking it too far?
Google Latitude is a feature for Google Maps which uses your cell phone’s GPS to enable you to (from Google):
- Share your location and status updates with the friends you choose
- See on a map where your friends are and what they’re up to
- Quickly contact them with text message, instant message, or phone call
- Control how much or how little location info you want to share with whomever you choose.
When Google initially announced Latitude, there was a somewhat of an outcry from people concerned about the privacy implications. The fact is, however, they were concerned about nothing. Latitude notifies cell users that it is running and so cannot be used to surreptitiously track a person without their knowledge. Additionally, users can choose how and with whom their information is shared. But that hasn’t stopped some parents from using it to track their kids. It’s easy enough to tell a child that they must keep their cell switched on and must keep Latitude running – or else! On one hand, it’s an easy way to make sure that your kids are where they are supposed to be (or aren’t where they are supposed to not be!). On the other hand, is this sort of tracking simply too invasive?
What do you think? Is monitoring with Latitude – or, for that matter, any other form of cell/GPS monitoring system – a form of stalking or is it simply a good way to make sure your kids are safe and help keep them out of mischief?
i have seen people hack like there was no tomorrow, so really if someone wanted to they could stalk someone end of comment.
Complete and uder lack of trust in your relationship?? get google latitude and always be able tyo track that cheeting, lying, sack of a wife, or kids addicted to drugs, sex, and violence?? get google latitude and go waste those dirty, evil, drug dealers for good!! Google latitude when you can’t even trust yourself! I mean My god!?! has it really come to this? are people really that untrusting?? you be the judge…
Complete and uder (utter) lack of trust in your relationship?? get google latitude (Get Google Latitude) and always be able to track that cheeting (cheating), lying, sack of a wife, or kids addicted to drugs, sex, and violence?? get google latitude (Get Google Latitude) and go waste those dirty, evil, drug dealers for good!! Google latitude (Latitude) when you can’t even trust yourself! I mean My god (God)!?! has (Has) it really come to this? are (Are) people really that untrusting?? you (You) be the judge…
yeah, i agree, im 10 and i would be mad if my parents were tracking me.
I’m 15 And I Agree Aswell.
a 10 year old complaining about his/her parents keeping track of him/her? seriously, you’re 10, of course your parents should be keeping track of you. Quite a ridiculous comment from you. If you were 15 or 16, totally different. 10 year olds need curfews not roaming the streets at all hours of the night, parents not knowing where they are.
Gavin is still entitled to his opinion!
evryone should b able 2 voice their own opinion. even a 10 yearold
QUITE a rude & ANNOYING comment from U. (BURN!)
LOL that isn’t even a burn. Same with your other comment…
But its true. Everyone should be about to speak out their own opinions, despite their age. Anyone would be mad if their parents are tracking them. I mean, really. However, parents do have good intentions, you do have to keep that in mind. Its just the methods they use aren’t always that great. But we can use cell phones to make a call and check up instead. Not stalking every move of your kids. -_________-
You can’t build a healthy relationship or any relationship at all without trust, right?
There’s keeping track (appropriately) and then there’s keeping track (intrusively). The complaint is about intrusive tracking and as a parent I sympathise with the kids. My parents used trust and an expectation of my behaviour quite successfully.
Parents should be picking up, dropping off or keeping a 10 years old kid with them, he is entitled to his opinion as is every 10 year old, but he is still wrong, jus cute.
I think that tracking of children has gotten out of hand. Parents need to teach their children to tell the truth and be honest about where they are going. Perhaps, if you have a problem with your ten-year-old going out drinking/partying the nights away you might think to track them via cellphones (which by the way, what? Ten-year-old with cellphone? I didn’t have one until I was sixteen!), but unless it is the case that there have been consistent lies and issues, honesty is the best policy. Last year they handed out an internet safety pack to parents at my high school. One of the recommendations was to utilize logic in the place of hacking skills, log into your son/daughters MSN, and set it to record the conversations as text files in a locked/hidden folder. Seriously?
What a great way to show to your kids that words are lies and can’t be trusted. Similar to how juries don’t seem to like vocal testimonies. How they have to have DNA and fingerprints to believe people’s words.
Guess what? There was a time when DNA and fingerprints couldn’t be used as evidence because the systems were too inaccurate or didn’t exist. Just like before now, parents had no method to use to track their children so easily.
Even as a seventeen year old, I have nothing to hide. If my parents wanted to track me, so be it. I would be more hurt that they felt it necessary, that they don’t trust me to be where I should be. And I would be more than willing to prove that I don’t lie to them about where I am, if my word alone wasn’t good enough. Its how you build trust- one thing on top of another. After a while, my parents would trust me, and my habit of being honest should stick.
For a ten-year-old to be ruled un-trustworthy and their parents to decide they wanted to do that, thats appalling.
For a fifteen-year-old, if your parents want to track you, then perhaps you have given them a reason to want to do so. Try the truth. With trust, that kind of thing is unnecessary, and no matter the parent, if they feel that they trust their children, they wouldn’t ever resort to that kind of thing.
I’m not saying I like the idea in the slightest. Somewhere along the lines technology has encroached too far into parenting. Its just that the only reason they would feel compelled to use it would be both their’s and their children’s fault.
Good day;
As far as a security device, I think that these GPS cell phones for little kids is a good idea. There have been too many child abductions in the recent past and this technology allows law enforcement to track them. Im sure there are alot of parents out there who had the same idea when they purchased the Cell’s for they’re kids.
Law enforement to track them? I’m sure if a child is abducted with a cell phone that the cell phone is going to thrown out pretty darn quick.
But that is besides the point. If your 10 years old, your parents do need to know where you are at all times, now I don’t know if GPS tracking is the best way to go about it, I mean when I was 10, calling my parents was good enough, and then them calling the persons house I said I was at to double check. That’s just my opinion, but I also say 10 year old kids are too young to have their own cell phones.
In todays society,I think cell phones for kids is a Great Idea,as there are way to many things going on with kids today,examples:abductions,abuse,and if a tracking system is available through them,then by all means let the kids use them for their own safety.
PROPS GAVIN! ur very smart & cool!
I think for a ten year old to be upset or mad because his parents are keeping an eye on him is ridiculous. i do understand that it must be frustrating.we’ve all been ten years old before we know what its like ,we want privacy and cant always get it.i’m 18 years old soon to be 19 i’m moving soon i’ll be attending university in a different town in less than 2 months. but even at this age my parents always want to know where i am at all times. and if i’m safe.yes of course it’s very annoying but i do take the time to call them once in a while during the day to let them know i’m alright. it’s all parents want from their child is to know that they are fine and not getting in to trouble.no parent wants that. be glad that they care about you enough to keep an eye on you
but yes i do agree with some.the tracking system or whatever.is slightly over board. it’s a total lack of trusting your children.
If my 10-year-old had Latitude, I would use it when we visit other cities. Immagine getting lost in New York or some other place you don’t know. There will be some good uses for this technology that both you and your parents would agree upon.
You would be mad? That’s natural. If you would be particularly mad because you’ve been going places your parents wouldn’t like? Not good.
10 year olds shouldnt be on the internet
my opinion is that if you truly think that than you are one deprived of electronics as a kid, two over protective of your children which will make them rebel against you, three did not think about what you wrote. plus if they are on the computer i means that they are not in the real world doing all the things that parents are worried there kids of doing.
dat is just plain RUDE! btw children r NOT dumb.
Why shouldn’t 10 year olds be on the internet? They shouldn’t be unsupervised at that age because there is plenty of age-inappropriate content out here but they most definitely _should_ be experiencing the internet.
When you are 18 then you can switch it off. Parents have every right to know, and should know, exactly where their children are and with whom.
that is right but it is called a cell phone
i totally agree with Gavin. I’m 12 and even though i have no cell phone ( ahem, hint hint parents!) i would be soooooooo
mad if my parents tracked me! i mean do u not trust us that much? that’s like helicopter parents. if u want you’re kid to have a miserable life go right ahead! if you don’t, stop hovering!!!!!
Fair that you would be mad at being tracked, but if you’re out in the city at age 12 alone, it’s best your parents know where you are.
Simply put, it’s not as safe as it may’ve been.
All your parents are doing is knowing WHERE you are. They’re not (atleast, not with Latitude) listening to your conversatios, or intruding upon your personal life. How does this make you miserable?
than stop lying to ur parents and tell the truth all kids lie to there parents!!!
Children lie to their parents. Children lie to their friends. Adults lie to their children. Adults lie to their friends. Adults lie to their spouses and girl/boyfriends. Our society today is built on lieing and scheming(spell check?). It’s sad but true. It needs to be accepted and people need to learn to deal with that fact. So kids lie to their parents. It’s the parents job to sort through the lies and find the truth. I think there has only been one lie that my parents never found out the truth about, but I ended up telling them eventually because I felt guilty about it. Thats how great parents they are.
yea id be annoyed
i m 12 and my parents are too clingy
bugs me alott\
lol i would use this to track my parents when they come home so i can do they cleaning they asked =)
Now there’s a good suggestion! You might be shocked by what you find out too! :)
Another tool for Google to offer mobile users, especially for their Android platform too.
As for tracking children’s, or anyone’s, location for that matter … all it takes is for that individual to leave their cellphone someplace other than where they are ….
Doesn’t anyone watch movies?
Gavin,
you are only 10, you have no opinion. You are not allowed to be mad at your parents. They own you.
Regards
Exactly !
even 10 year olds have opinions. BTW he IS allowed 2 b mad at his
parents. Gavin is a kid. NOT a slave. His parents DON’T own him.
His parents r related 2 him. BURN!
This i not a case of parents making him into a slave, Point 1) Slaves don’t get to go out.
This is a case of his parents not only being responcible for his safety but also being responcible for his actions. Most of us get to a point where we understand that every action and choice has consequesnces and most 10yr olds don’t have the forsight or experience to see this. A few might but then again, thats not for them to say.
Stop saying ‘burn’. You don’t know how to use the term. This helps you appear dumber. You actually use the word “tweens”, too? That’s like telling people to make sure to not take anything you say seriously.
It’s ok 2 be young and dumb (we all were at some point), but u don’t need 2 advertise it. (c how stupid that looks?)
OK the Alex who wrote the stop saying burn comment is a different Alex than me! and does it matter if we say burn? NO! and the word tweens is not stupid!! would u rather we used pre-teens?! well that sounds even dumber! and we are SO NOT DUMB!! HOW MANY ACADEMIC AWARDS DID U GET I WONDER? O! RIGHT! NONE! ya well i did!!! haha! and I’m ashamed to share you’re name! and “this helps you appear dumber”? are u SERIOUSLY saying that we were already dumb?! apparently u were young and dumb but the DUMB DIDN’T WEAR OFF YET!! AND YES I SAID IT! IN UR FACE!
Okay, honestly, how old are you? Judging from your typing skills, or lack thereof, your unmatched overreaction skills, as well as the apparently impossible task of you using any word other than dumb to describe someone of, shall we say, limited intelligence would make me guess that you’re barely into double digits of age. While I will acknowledge that you have an opinion which should be held in equal regard as anyone else’s, et cetera, seriously, look at what you wrote. Truly, it’s people like you who help give kids bad reputations. If you want people to take kids seriously and not think that they’re dumb, start acting mature.
Stop saying young ppl r dumb. u wouldn’t kno dumb even if it
hits u in the face! This helps U appear dumber. It’s ok 2 b dumb.
But u don’t need 2 advertise it. (btw dat does not look stupid!)
Typing in full connotes intelligence. Typing in shorthand really makes you look stupid and illiterate. Everyone may have an opinion, but how you voice it will influence how it is received.
Try using logic and reason, not insults and overreactions.
sure they do, you think if a 10 yr old starts making major income his parents arent going to get any of it? As a matter of fact the kid actually has no say what so ever. Thats why so many things require a parental/guardian consent, because children simply do not have consent. What do you think will happen if say… his parents just left him? he would be raised by foster parents or orphaned, in respect either the orphanage or the foster parents will then “own” him until he is at an age which he is entitled the rights of an adult. Of course he still has HUMAN rights while he is a minor, but then again when has HUMAN rights ever stopped anyone from achieving something desired? Look around you.
uhmm actually tou’ve been misinformed. If a 10 year old were to start making major income his/her parents are NOT allowed to touch ANY of it. There are laws against it. It goes into a special account that the child isn’t even allowed to touch until he/she is at the age of majority. It protects children who are working and making lots of money from having it stolen by their parents.
Oh, when I saw this comment I laughed so hard that I started to have trouble breathing. In truth, an account can be set up similar to what you’re describing (generally referred to as a “trust fund/account”) but unless that’s arranged before hand, it’s not going to just spontaneously occur. Of course, the child can set up a normal account which he/she can access whereas the parents cannot, but that doesn’t fit your description.
Skott- That was slightly rude (the laughing) since you clearly have no idea what your talking about, but since I was a bit wrong too I’ll let it go.
The account I found out is only for child athletes, musicians, and actors. And only a certain percentage of the money earned goes into that account. But I’m pretty sure it;s different where I live because in mine all the money goes into an account, but maybe thats just the way my parents have it set up. It’s called a Coogan account. Google it.
And I apologize for being wrong before.
Mines got a different name too, but I’m not quite sure what it is. Sorry. (And please no one be rude because I don’t know this informtion, though I’m sure people will be anyway)
So, a few questions here:
What is a “tween”?
Why do you insist on saying everything is a ‘burn’?
Why do you keep repeating yourself?
no one owns anyone
who do you think you are Joe?! everyone has a right to be mad at there parents for something like tracking!!!! and just cuz he’s 10 doesn’t mean he has no freaking opinion! and they don’t own him, you make it sound like they bought him somewhere! god! its people like you that make kids lives suck and the retarded politicians get in! you are so freaking stupid to think that kids are gonna sit back and let idiot grownups make our world polluted, gross and under the rule of a dictator! do you really think we are? WE HAVE FREAKING RIGHTS TOO! YOU ARE SO NARROW MINDED AND KIDS ARE NOT SLAVES!!!! AND EVERYBODY HAS OPINIONS! except maybe u don’t deserve to. and all this goes to Pete to!
This one is good for all the cheaters out there looking to find where thier wives are or husbands so the other partner they are cheeting with have time to leave without getting CAUGHT CAUGHT CAUGHT and then there is the best thing like not cheating but we all do it sometimes…..
It’s not stalking or invasive to make sure you know where your children are; and I don’t think it’s for kids to decide if they want their parents to know their whereabouts. You get THAT particular decision-making status when you move out.
Parents should expect to know where their kids are are, and for them to be accountable to themselves, their parents and the boudaries.
It is not about hacking or invasion of your children’s
privacy, it is about a safety net in today’s world.
there are all kinds of dangers that face our children.
If children have respect for their parents and an open
honest relationship; this will not bother them !!
what if im sneaking away from where im supposed to be to buy my parrent that perfect gift I know they would just lovee! but oh, suprised ruined, they know exactly where I am!
LOL. Honest to God Mom, I was sneaking out/skipping school because I love you! No No, that crack corner is where your favorite store is!
hahahaa – ya right
I agree with this 100%, if this will provide us one iota of comfort to parents as to their kids where abouts then it is wonderful how far technology has taken us.
it can very well bother them. and instead of encoureging a healthy and honest relationship with your kids your showing that you dont trust them or that you doubt their judgment, and your relationship. you can say its to protect them as much as you whant but thats not what it will come across as.when you were a child there was not this tecnology why deny your children the privacy and freedome you were entitled, allow them to make there own mistakes and grow as people. if things start to get bad, if your any type of quality parent, you will be able to tell,all it takes is to actually pay attention.
You are apparently not a parent.
When we were children, we weren’t running around unsupervised at 10 years old (At least most of us weren’t).
Even at 16, most parents had a decent idea where their kids were most of the time.
Today, more and more young kids run around almost completely unchecked. The idea behind this is good, but I fear it is going to allow for further separation of parents from their children as they become reliant on the cell-phone to do the child-minding.
I agree today there seems to be more and more young kids that are running around unchecked…. but I think this is more a comment to the level of parenting and less to the personality of the child. In my opinion any parent who lets younger children roam around, more so at night and not know where they are will not care about this technology either.
The rule growing up for me and it will be the same for my children when they are old enough to be out on their own will be to tell me where they are going (ie Jimmy’s house down the street) and stay in ear shot. My brother and I knew the rule well growing up when Dad whistled we came home. If we were not listening for it or wondered to far and missed it… we were not going out again for day or two … if there are reasonable consequences and a reasonable level of trust going both ways then will learn to respect rules and learn trust going both ways. I don’t feel as a parent I would want to impose this level of monitoring for my children
when you were a child, did children sell each other crack cocaine in middle school? They do now.
If parents have respect for their children and an open honest relationship, they shouldn’t have to stoop to this. Look forward to your kids spying on you when your old and senile.
Are you serious?? I have a completely open and honest relationship with my parents, but I object to this, because it demonstrates a total lack of trust in my decision making skills, judgement, and my parents teaching skills. For there to be a good relationship at all there has to be trust and if my parents forced this on me I would find ways to defy them, simply out of anger over there apparent lack of trust.
Well said Candy
It is invasion of privacy. It is over the top. Tracking your children is paranoia plain and simple. This doesn’t mean that children don’t have the responsibility to ensure that their parents know where they are and what they are doing. Nothing has changed there. Parents need to allow their children to have some room to explore and grow so that they get practice making decisions with guidance. This is how people learn to be thinking adults and not sheep. They have to learn that trust is earned. All that a Google tracking device will teach them is that Mom and Dad can’t watch Google while they are driving to or from work so… That’s the best time to go where you aren’t supposed to… Or in other words they will learn that even with a tracking device you won’t be able to track them all of the time. The best use I can see for this is to find a lost cell phone. In case you were wondering I am the parent of three teenage children who don’t need to be tracked. Since they have cell phones they use them to call me when they are going to be late. If I don’t get a call I make a call. That is how cell phones should be used.
I agree! It’s a bit over the top. It would really irk me if my mother followed my every move, because ,honestly, I would ALWAYS tell her before I went out where I was going. It just shows that parents don’t trust their kids. I’m 12 and I don’t get a cell until next year, but, , when I do get a cell, I will do what your kids do (and most ohters should) -call when something changes.
I agree Wendy. If parents fail to trust their kids, their kids will fail to be trustworthy.
i agree with you
i personally think that the use of such software shows the level of trust that parents of today’s generation
our grandparents didn’t have this much technology at their fingertips when our parents were teenagers; if their parents trusted them, why shouldn’t they trust us
i always call my mom whenever i arrive at the place i am goiing to, when i leave the place, or if there are any unexpected changes of plan, and i doubt that she would ever want to use such software, because she trusts me, and other parents should do the same
amen to that
here here!
Wow, lots of super scary paranoid micromanaging mothers around here. I’m sooo glad I got a sane one!
tru dat! PROPS MIKE!
I agree!! We as parents must know where are kids are. I see too many kids wandering about at 4:00 in the morning and ask myself, do their parents know where they are?
And if you can stop 1 tragedy from happenning, it’s worth hurting someone’s feelings for that moment.
But it’s NOT for that moment, it’s FOREVER. A child will NEVER forget parental behaviour like this. It is a betrayal of the child’s trust in his/her parents. Stalking is not too strong a word for this behaviour.
The irony is that the sort of parents that will resort to this psychotic monitoring are not the sort of parents who let their kids wander around at 4 a.m. – they barely let them be out on their own at 4 P.M.!
well said mike
You just said the exact reason this “Latitude” should not be used for parents “stalking” their kids. Kids should be accountable to themselves first. Kids don’t respond well to tyranny which is what this seems like to them. In order to learn the decision making skills they will need when they move out, they must be presented with the oppurtunity to develop those skill now, while you can still help them when they mess up. Parents who think they are preparing their kids to move out by being over protective, setting strict boundaries and not allowing the child to think for themeselves, are sorely mistaken. The most powerful tool in teaching a kid is trust, and this tool demonstrates a total lack of trust.
My parents have never tracked me, never monitored my internet access, and have allowed me pretty much free range as a kid. I knew my boundaries, I knew what was safe, and I knew who to avoid because my parents did their jobs as parents.
All these tracking devices, parental controls, etc do is make it so parents don’t have to do their job. They can rely on the computer to monitor for them, the TV to block them from shows THEY deem inappropriate, and the game consoles in the house to block them from games that are rated too old for them.
Parents need to start being parents and stop trying to be superheroes saving their kids from being “corrupted”. If they showed the right way instead of forced it, allowed their children to experience life instead of sheltering them from it, their children would be a lot better off.
Ditto here about the free reign bit, however I must confess that I am a jackass and didn’t know my boundaries so now I have a bit of a porn addiction. It’s not the real world that really screws kids up so long as they have relatively positive role models, it’s the virtual/online world that gets them. Primarily because the technology nowadays is so vastly different from that only 10 years ago and parents may (note that I say MAY) not understand what their kids could get into and so having limitations on those sorts of things can be useful. However I do tend to agree that many parents seem to avoid parenting altogether and just pre-program their kids lives for them which will impact them negatively in the future when the only views on things that they know are those that have been selectively pre-screened by their parents. So in a way I could see this as a useful tool for parents to do a quick check-up on where their kids are or even find the where they are so that they can pick them up, but it would become more of a nuisance for their kids and a hit to self-esteem if parents used it more as a 24/7 watchdog system.
I Think That If You Track Where Your Kid(s) Are 24/7 That’s Being A Little Too Over Protective. It Could Really Bring Down Trust Issues Between The Kid(s) and Parents/Guardians. But If You Need To Find Out Where Your Kid(S) Are Right Away Then It Could Be Really Helpful. However If The Kid(s) Do Not Want To be Found they Could Just Turn Of Their Phone.
I think that this is not only a gross invasion of privacy, its also terrible for the development of kids. Face it, kids are supposed to get in trouble. They need to socialized with out their parents, and although kids SHOULDN’T lie to their parents, its part of growing up. They will never learn until you let them, and unless you let them make mistakes and do what there not supposed to, they will never become mature adults. You have to let kids be kids. Unfortunately, that means you can’t know were they are all the time. Trust them to keep themselves safe.
I wonder if you have raised a family?
We raised 6 kids and we knew where they were all the time by building trust with them and supplying constant supervision.
In today’s world of fast paced living it is a very good ideal to have away to know where your offspring are so as to prevent them from falling in harms way.
but what kind of harms way are we talking here? kidnapping? sure it’s a good thing for that…drug use? for all you know they could be in the shed at their best friends house doing it, and all you would see is them at that friends house…all this program generates as a parenting tool is resentment from the kids…leading to them acting out…and suspision, most often unfounded, on the part of the parents. By the time kids are old enough to have a cell phone EXPENSIVE enough to carry this application…cause we are talkin at least $100-$200 cell phone, this is not something a regular 12 year old would have, i’m thinking at least 16 for most average kids…by that time you should be well past the stage where you would need to monitor their every move, and into the stage where you should trust what you’ve taught them and let them go out on their own…I also firmly believe that by this stage it is the parents role to advise them when they fall into harms way, but that the teaching of how to avoid falling into harms way in the first place should have happened long before they can afford this phone…
Are you kidding me? I’d probably be willing to be that around 16 is one of the times when kids rebel the most! While I’m not endorsing the use of this system, I’d definitely be just as worried about a 16 year old as I would a 12 year old, simply because the 16 year old probably knows a lot more ways to get into trouble. Will he utilize those ways? Not necessarily, but it’s possible.
You know what causes that rebellion?? Overprotective parents not willing to trust their kids. If they didn’t have a something to rebel against they wouldn’t be able to rebel. That is why trusting the kid works much better then setting strict boundaries as they approach adulthood. Parents must trust what they have taught their kid and let them grow up, and while at 16 they may not have the same legal rights as adults, they are certainly approaching adulthood in terms of cognative ability, maturity, and physically, and they should begin to be treated as such
this is good thing. To all the teens and in betweens wait till you have kids
Being a parent IS a very scary thing. Particularly with all these over-reported abductions etc. Remember that those things are news because they are uncommon occurrences. So, get over it.
This traces via cell-phones, right? Why would a kid who is young enough to need to sneak behind their parents’ backs possibly need a cell-phone? I haven’t met too many middle-school kids with a part-time job to pay for phone bills.
Furthermore – sneaking around and doing what you’re told not to is a completely natural way to grow up. To anyone that says it isn’t, think back to your own childhood. And if you can honestly say you never had to be sneaky, then you’ve probably led a pretty pathetically sheltered life and it’s frankly no wonder that your children are seeking some peace from your tyranny.
‘Nuff said.
Even though I am a teenager, and don’t understand what it’s like yet to be a parent, I still think this is a HUGE invasion of privacy.
I mean, sure, I understand that parents want their children to be safe. But really… you were all kids once, and have learned from mistakes that you have made. I think that some parents of today try to save their children from making those mistakes, but they need to trust their children more.
Eventually, that child would find out that they’re being tracked, and ditch that device. Not all children are ‘dumb’, you know :P It’s not fool-proof.
If you read the article, you would know that the cell phone has to be turned on and it shows that latitude is running. The “child” would know they’re being tracked. There’s nothing secret about it. Any child that ditches the device should have their priviledges revoked. We don’t live in an ideal society, and kids have way more freedom than they probably should. All you have to do is open the newspaper to see why parents should be able to track their kids.
Utter rubbish. Kids have FAR LESS freedom than they did when I was a kid in the 1960s. As for safety, society isn’t really that much worse than in the past – it is just the way news is reported these days distorts peoples perception of reality. Child abductions wouldn’t have got beyond the local papers when I was a kid. Things changed when the boomers became parents and the media discovered that the way to sell news was to focus on children and personal stories. Look at all the hoohah about Jackson’s kids taking over the news. That just didn’t happen 30+ years ago. What about all the poor kids around the world? Where is there coverage – their need is far greater.
I can’t speak for the 60′s but when i was rowing up in the 70′s and 80′s me and my friends would go out, get into trouble and by the time I got home with an alibie as to what we wern’t doing she already knew where I was, Who I was with, and What we actually were doing.
That was because the entire neighbourhood new us and our family’s, we were constantly watched and half the time by people who only knew us by association to who our neighbour was.
Family’s talked but now we have distanced ourselves from the community and we have more frequent conversations with people in other cities and countries than with our neighbours.
Her si a question for you, how many of the people on your street can identify your child, or even what house you live in, if you asked them. Your immediate neighbour shur, the guy down the street, not likely.
I grew up in London, England. The connectedness with our neighbours was about the same as it is here in Ottawa. We knew up to next-door-but-one and one or two others on our street and the faces of people that frequently walked up or down the street without knowing where they lived. I walked myself to school from age 8 or so and on the holidays enjoyed the freedom of “be back by suppertime” that kids today are denied. My parents taught me about stranger danger and I still maintain that the threat to kids is no more than it ever was – it’s just reported more widely and when there’s no local incident to report we hear about missing British kids in Spain. The fear I have is road crossing but I recognize that it is _me_ that has the problem. I model good road crossing behaviour and recognize that here the roads are wider and not much more busy than I grew up with.
You bring up excellent points. Years ago neighborhoods were a network of people working together, neighbors were friendlier and much more trusting. If there was trouble, everyone knew about it. Local police, schools, and parents all worked together not against each other.
I don’t think anyone plans to monitor their childs where abouts 24/7, but rather use it as a safety measure because they love and care about their children.
Sometimes it is not the parents fault that a child runs away. Kids often make poor choices. We raised 3 children (the same way). Two turned out very well, while one was on drugs and running the streets. There were weeks on end, that we didnt know if our daughter was alive or dead. We would have loved to have this technology available. We did everything in our power to get her help, but services aren’t as plentiful as one would hope.
My belief is, the only ones bothered by this, have something to hide. There is a lot to be said for trust and respect, but when that is compromised, bring on the technology!!!
Critical thinker – It’s not scientific and I am aware that the sample is probably slanted by the need to make good TV but my impression from watching “Intervention” is that almost all the junkies/alkies suffered some kind of trauma or have some kind of mental disease and are self-medicating. That trauma (not necessarily by a parent) includes sexual abuse, unreasonable expectation, ambition mismatch, religious dogmatism, homophobia, and other physical/emotional abuse. It is interesting also that despite widespread use of hard drugs by troops in Vietnam, the vast majority of them stopped taking drugs (except maybe enjoying weed) when they returned thus indicating that addiction is something internal to the addict, not something inherent in hard drugs or alcohol. Faced with a drink/drug abusing child, I would certainly be trying to have counsellors try to get to the root of the problem.
“Any child that ditches the device should have their priviledges revoked.”
Wow your real nice aren’t you?
Sure parents want their kids to be safe but tracking is way to far and it’s disgusting. I just asked my parents right now if they would do this and they said absoutley not.
They trust me. If they didn’t I wouldn’t trust them. It’s a 2 way street.
Any parent wanting to get this for a child is ovbiously sick in the head. Thats that.
gee im starting to think there is a big brother somewhere out there….
Hi. I just turned 18 a few months ago, an although I don’t understand what it feel like to be a parent, I can see benefits to this Latitude thing. First of all, it does not have to be used to check-up on your kids! I think that if the parents trust their children they would not use this to stalk them, rather to check where they are if they are late coming home and the parents begin to worry. And let’s consider the just in case issue, say for example the kid is kidnapped, it would be rather simple to track them down if they had Latitude turned on on their phone. I guess this thing is more to keep parents from worrying pointlessly, rather than stalking, and I believe that it is important for all kids and teens to understand this. And teens if your parents trust you than they will have no reason to stalk you, so isn’t it better to think…gee if something happens to me at a club downtown then at least my parents will find me and get help???
Well said, Yo-Yo! I agree totally with you! I have an honest relationship with my two teens and they have been raised that I should know where they are, but rely on them to tell me or to call me if they will be somewhere else. Latitude would be a safety measure. It is not that I do not trust them; it is the other nuts out there in the world that I don’t!
I applaud your words YOYO. I am a parent of a 15, 13 and 10 year old. That is exactly what my thoughts were, I think it is a nice tool to do that checking when they are running late, I do have a life of my own too and checking on the kids 24/7 is not a part of that. I do have trust in my kids and so far they have not let me down, except if they are running late, I do panic, I am still their mom, but then again if they have a cell phone, cant you just call them, unless as you said, they are hurt and unable to answer their phone. As for the kidnapping thing, wonderful tool, if the kidnappers dont find it. There are so many “what if’s”. I think what it boils down to is a trust issue. Personally I am all for it.
That is not the use that so many people are objecting to. It’s the parents suggesting that it should be used as a tool to survaile their kids 24 hours a day to make sure they are exactly where they say they are. One mother even said her kids would have their privliges revoked if they ever “left their phone somewhere” or “turned of the program” that is the scary thing I find. Not the enlightened parents such as yourself who would use it if they are late and haven’t called, but people like that woman who use it to police there kids location totally out of context. That is the use of this application I, and so many others find objectionable, but for the use you and YOYO have outlined it would be very useful, but for me, I would only turn on my device to my parents viewing if I was in trouble or late, not to be monitored everywhere I went. My parents agree with me. They trust me to make my own decisions, but would love to be able to find me if i was late/in trouble.
Well, maybe you should give society the benefit of the doubt, and think of those obsessed, 24-hour monitoring parents as the exceptions, rather than the rules. I’m hoping that this program would get used only when necessary, in which case, it could be a wonderful asset, so I’m willing to wait and see how it plays out for a bit. If people are abusing this ability, then I agree that it should be eliminated. If not, I don’t see a problem.
That’s exactly what I said. Unfortunatly on this blog the parents are seeming to be the rule so I am speaking from that perspective. However i sincerely hope you are right and that they are the exception, because as I said if it’s used as YoYo described it could be a great program
well said,
honestly i never thought about it like that until reading your comment
Obviously, parents will not use Latitude just in case. They will always be watching; and parents will deny that. If they have the technology to do it, why not, right? I personnaly could never do that to my child. Sure, safety and protection are one thing, but to be tracked like an animal day in and day out. I mean, all kids need to learn from experience, if their parents are always watching and calling as soon as they’re not where they’re suppose to be then how is the kid gonna learn what happens when you go there. Get what I’m getting at? All this technology stuff is getting ridiculous and people think it’s cool. People are not animals and should NOT be monitored every second of the day.
after reading some of the responses from some of the panel, i am shocked. Growing up in the 70′s where discipline was definatly not what it is like today leaves me scratching my head. You Kids today no absolutly NOTHING about respect or honor or trust. My parents actually paid someone to follow me around to make sure that i wasn’t getting into trouble or mischief. Now i am not saying that i was a bad kid, i certainly took my lumps when i deserved them not like the kids today.That is for sure. I wish that my parents had this option when i was young, it would have been a real piece of mind for them. I will also be using this tool for my Kids and will take the time to explain why this tool is good for them as well. Lets face it as long as you are not doing anything your not suppossed to be doing then you have nothing to be worried about. I will also say i have 3 great kids that when explained to them will understand this as well.
So for all of you kids that are belly aching about this”GROW UP” this is just a tool and if you are doing something you shouldn’t be doing or are somewhere that you shouldn’t be then you should worry but if you are some of those rare kids out there with morals and respect and yes you do as you say then you should have nothing to fear.
It must have sucked to be you and it will suck to be your kids if you do use this. Kids are no better or worse than in the past. It’s the same old same old. Even the Ancient Greeks weren’t saying anything new when they were complaining about “the youth of today”. By the way, I presume that you are in favour of red light cameras and speed cameras. It’s funny how many parents think those are invasion of privacy but this sort of tracking somehow isn’t.
Ghost, seriously whats with you saying all kids know nothing of respect honor or trust? Seeing how your an adult you should be above saying stereotypes. NOT all kids are as bad as you think. Im 17 and I have a lot respect for people (teachers, parents, and basically eveyone I know). As for Trust and Honor a lot of kids I know trust and honor people and my parents trust me. Yes I have done stuff to lose that Trust but that just made me realise how important trust is and that I needed to earn it to get it back.
I think you just conclusivly proved the point that you can’t learn from your parents mistakes. They were way out of line hiring sombody to tail you around as a kid, and you will be way out of line to use this 21st century method to do the same. We should be teaching kids how to avoid bad situations, and how to get out of them if they ever get in them, and we can tell them all our knowlege all we want but there’s no teaching tool like failure. They need to experiance those lessons first hand and learn from them. (Just like you failed to learn from your second hand parenting lessons) As a parent we are supposed to ensure that the kids are never in so much trouble that they can’t recover from that failure, and provide them with the tools they need to recover. We are not here to ensure they never get in trouble in the first place though.
Parents who want to know where their kids are every second will find ways, no matter what. I’m 18, and my mother still always manages to follow my every move.
Being 20, I live away from home and am annoyed with my parents when they try to tell me when to go to bed when I do come home to visit. In many cases, my parents don’t understand when they are being too controlling.
That being said, I think this would be great for say, when I go out late, or if I went on a trip to a different country or something…it would be peace of mind to for both me and my parents for them to see where I was so that if I was kidnapped or ended up in a ditch or something, they would know exactly where to find me. So as a means for safety, I think this is great.
As a means of making sure your kid is where s/he say they are, I definitely agree that it is a privacy and trust issue. Your kids will never grow up if you don’t give them a little space to make mistakes, grow, and have fun.
I’m left home to go to school, but the best part of my education has been living away from home.
I think it’s a bit ridiculous. These kind of things just cause more relationship problems. Back before they had cellphones, if your husband, or wife or kid or who ever, was supposed to be coming home, you assumed they’d get there when they got there, because there was nothing more you could do. Now that we have all have cell phones, people are calling and texting constantly, and can’t stand not to know where someone is for 30 minutes, while that person may very well be driving home (which is another issue, people talking on their stupid phones while they’re driving home, i’m SURE it could wait until you get there, so we don’t all die in a firey blaze of vehicles, thanks) Being two minutes late coming home is suddenly an issue because “why didn’t you answer my calls, what took you so long getting home, is your phone dead, why don’t you ever text back..?”… and NOW, theres this?!?! Ohhh my goodness. Yeah, this is an AWESOME invention! its a really cool concept, and probably has a lot of good use, but ask yourself what kind of person needs this? We used to be able to use maps, find our own directions, meet people at proper times, and pre-determined places, so we didn’t all have to stand around with our cell phones attached to the sides of our heads everytime we were trying to see a friend, or go anywhere.
As for the parents and children out there who are worried about this:
First, who ever said that the ten year old kid doesn’t have an opinion because he’s 10, that’s just plain rude. A person is a person, and should be respected and acknowledged, no matter what age they are, because you were that are once too, and you didn’t know everything. Maybe, if someone had given you half a chance, or let you express your opinion with out judging it, or educated you about what you didn’t know then, instead of making you feel dumb and worthless, you wouldn’t have grown up as such a miserable human being. Things you say to children affect them their whole life, and if you make this kid feel like he has no opinion now, you think when he’s 13, 18, 36, he’s going to have any sort of confidence left? no. not after living in the hateful, confidence crushing world we live in sometimes. think before you speak to children, Please.
Parents, if you’ve done a good enough job raising your child, you’ll never have to worry about where they are. You should never have to track your kids, because if you’ve instilled your own values (or perhaps better ones, as parents also are not perfect, and everyone wants their kids be safe, and happy, and wonderful), your kid will respect that, and make their own smart decisions. You need to respect your childrens’ privacy, even if they do “belong to you”, because they too will be an educated, experienced adult some day, just like yourself. If you never let them live, adventure, see things, screw up, and learn, they won’t turn out to be what you’ve been trying so hard to let them be. sheltering, following and questioning your children does no good. I think that something like this, where you can electronically follow your children around, will do nothing but push children away from their parents (not all parents, just the crazy ones, who stalk their kids..). They will feel as though their parents are invading their life, rather than being invited in. You want to have an open relationship with your children, so you can know where they hang out, what kind of people they hang out with, and whether they are happy and healthy, not so you can try to scare them away from the places you don’t want them to be.
I have a really good relationship with my parents, probably one of the best (i spend a lot of time abroad.. it’s okay to laugh hahaha) But if they decided they wanted to gps track me, I would be outraged. Not that i don’t want them to know where I am, or what I’m doing, but because I would much rather be able to tell them myself! I have nothing to hide from them, but rather, I actually enjoy the time I spend with my parents, telling them stories, and talking about what we’ve done recently and I think that this would take out an important part of our relationship. (hint hint, parents) They never asked me what I did, where I was, how was school, if I’d been drinking…. they just waited until i told them in the morning(and often the morning was when i came home, in the wee hours of the am, when they were still sleeping, but they would lay there in bed, half asleep and listen to my ranting, and stories about people they dont know and don’t really care about at all… But listening nonetheless, thankful that their daughter WANTS to tell them about her day, that she is happy, and wants to share that happiness with them, in a normal, conversational way.. Not by agreeing to let her parents stalk her on their cellphone.
By all means, if you can find a way to get your child to agree, and be happy with the fact that you are following their every move, go for it, and enjoy this amazing gps tool, and all the capabilities. It actually sounds pretty cool, if it wasn’t real. For me, i’ll stick to the old ways, when people used to TALK to their kids, and trust them, and have family dinners that didn’t involve a tv, or anything more than good conversation and home cooked food… Oh, and let me know when they come out with a chip you can just install in your kids neck.. maybe i’ll finance that with my parents.
Well Sam…you wrote – “Maybe, if someone had given you half a chance, or let you express your opinion with out judging it, or educated you about what you didn’t know then, instead of making you feel dumb and worthless, you wouldn’t have grown up as such a miserable human being”
Who’s judging here? Who are you to assume that any parent was not given half a chance, or is not educated, or has been made to feel dumb & worthless or for that matter, a miserable human being? How judgemental is that?
Most respectful people will “think” before they speak (or write)
sam was not referring to parents,
she was talking about anyone who was degraded in their childhood by an older person
Yeah it was to the idiotic adult who thought it was a good idea to tell a 10 year old he had no voice and didn’t matter in this chat, not to the controlling parents, although she did make her point very eloquently regarding them as well
Ahhh to be young and naive once again. What a wonderful rose colored glasses world you live in. If only every parent / child relationship was the Utopian dream you claim to have with your parents, but the truth Sam is that yours is the exception not the rule.
I have three children adn they all grew up in the same trusting and stable home. We had the same dreams for all of them, that they’d growup happy, confident, and successful in whatever they chose to do. My eldest was always an “A” student, never in trouble, we supposedly knew all his friends, as prepping for university. That was 2 years ago. Now he’s a meth addict. Been in rehab twice already (once volunitarily, and has relaped both times), and arrested for 6 B&Es to feed his habit. My middle child excels at sports, has average grades, and he to is starting to prep himself for life after high school, and is at the age it all fell apart for his brother. Tell me I don’t have a reason to lay awake at night wondering if it is all going to happen once again. Thankfully, we have a few years until we’ll be at these crossroads with our youngest. But things look good for her at the moment.
So before you go off and judge those you don’t know, wait until you’ve gained some more experience, and perhaps had children of your own. I can guarantee you that your opinions will change when that wonderful life altering event happens. My eldest just turned 19, and I can still remember every little detail of my pregnancy. We all thought we were “bulletproof” when we were young, then reality took off our rose coloured glasses.
I hope your son soon finds the underlying cause of his need for drugs and gets his life back on track.
I am very sorry that things turned out that way for your son, and hopefully he can turn things around and fulfill the promise he had shown, but do you firmly believe that if you had had this tool and monitored him 24 hours a day, as some parents are suggesting, things would have turned out differently? For some people all it takes is one trial of certain drugs and they are hooked, and as you pointed out that could very well have taken place at a friends house, someplace you would have thought safe on the map. And as i’m sure you are already aware once someone is hooked it doesn’t matter how much you will try and monitor them, they can still relapse easily. The point is not wheather or not all situations are ideal or not (although i do contest your assertion that sam’s is the exception and not the rule, as i to grew up in a house like sam’s and judging from the number of stable adults compared to the number of criminals sam’s is the rule and not the exception) The point she was trying to make however, is that using this as a 24 hour monitor for your child is simply not a good idea. It undermines trust, the parent child relationship, and speaking as a teenager, greatly increase the risk of rebellion in the teen.
Parents have an obligation to their children to make sure they protect them. I don’t see this as a spying technique, I see it as an opportunity to ensure your children get home safe every day, or that they made it to school alright. There is a difference between not trusting your children and wanting to protect them. I would do anything to ensure my childrens safety. If that would mean I would put a divice on their phone so I could track them, HECK YES I would do it without question.
well, I would rather if all the kids were getting home safely, but you do realise, that 1) a ten year old should not have a phone. thats much too young for that age group and 2) when they have a phone, 13, 14, 15, they need to be able to go out , and even go to school, with out mommy tracking them over a cell phone. I will never understand fully the protection of a mother, needless to say that I respect it, and know that it is a task seen in nature. But tracking is under the impresion that something bad IS going to happen. Also a coplete lack of trust for a child.
I agree. Respect the instinct of the protective parent (it’s not just the mums) but then act to keep it within reason. The media really do distort the impression of the chances of bad things happening and people just don’t go take a look at the statistics to see what the reality is. This raging parental paranoia is just like the folks that are scared of flying yet drive to the airport. A look at the odds of being killed or injured shows that the car was by far the riskiest part of the journey yet people allow irrational fear to control their lives. This need to take away the freedom from our kids seems more about selfishly easing our own anxieties than bringing up street-wise kids that are able to look after themselves.
its spelled DEVICE, and its stupid, if you are over 13 you should be old enough to understand where u can go and where you should avoid.
J, I seriously hope you are not a parent and it’s hypothetical. Or if you are a parent, I believe the best thing you could do for them is put them under foster care, or even just send them to live with a relative.
I’m 20 now, and the myriad of social issues caused by my mother’s overprotectiveness still affect everything I do. I got out into the real world and realized I couldn’t make choices for myself. I didn’t even have the skills to make friends.
I cannot imagine a worse thing than to be under the constant eye of someone. Going to a friends house, but walk a different route? Phone call from mummy. Decide to go to the store with said friend? Phone call from mummy. It’s pure torture.
You have to think of the child/teen involved in this, and not just yourself.
Hey now, I’m by no means for being stalked by parents (for the record, I’m 14 and, in my opinion, a relatively good kid), but effectively saying someone is unfit for parenting and would do the most help by giving up and sending their child to live with someone else? Wouldn’t that probably be more emotionally crippling than overprotection?
This won’t work on a simple cell phone … you need one of the high-priced ones with screens and web and texting ability, etc. Not counting the high-priced connection options which will blow your monthly budget, you want your kid to lose the too-expensive super-tech phone? I don’t think so.
Good point Had, all my kids have a phone which they primarily use to text their friends that dont live in our area. It is much cheaper than long distance charges, (and 3 kids fighting over the phone) we live in a rural area and phoning pretty much anywhere is long distance. Plus I do like being able to get in touch with them when I have something to ask them, because they are never home, they are always out and about somewhere. However, they DO NOT have expensive phones, kids are kids and things sometimes get lost or broken. I would not be willing to purchase an expensive phone for them.
When I want to know where one of the boys is I send a text “where are you”? They know they better answer immediately and if I happen to show up there, they better be there.
Knowing where your kids are is not stalking; but having to track them with GPS to find out is indicative of other problems.
C’mon people you are parents. So parent!
Hear hear!