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Strollerderby
Tagging Kids: Safety First or Over the Line?
I’ll admit I start to get more than a little freaked out after reading a few recent kidnapping stories in California. I’ve read before that kids aren’t any less safe today than they were in the “good ol’ days” — the multitude of news sites easily available just lets us read about more crimes and believe so.
And yet, in the news coverage of two high-profile kidnappings, it scared me to think of how easy it was for the kidnappers. In the case of Jaycee Dugard, an 11-year-old girl was who recently found alive at 29, the kidnapper snatched her at her school bus stop, while her step-dad watched. In another case, a kidnapper admitted he snatched an unsupervised child off a front lawn because he wanted some “company” on a long drive.
These were split second crimes of opportunity, and it immediately made me think of the times I’ve left my daughter on our front porch, happily munching on a snack while I went to the bathroom or answered a phone call.
What if? I wonder.
There was an AP news story over the weekend about new devices that let you “track” your children. Some are clips you attach to clothes and include alarms. Some are GPS devices that resemble cell phones. The alarm system sounded downright silly to me. A kidnapper could simply rip it off the clothes and throw it away. The same goes for a GPS device.
But what are the deeper issues? The article talked to an expert about the message these devices might send children.
“I think my concern would be more the perceived lack of trust … if you’re telling them you can’t regulate yourself to make safe decisions of where you’re going,” said Stuart Lustig, a professor of child psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.
On the flip side, one parent said the safety was worth it.
“You hope that it never happens to you, but it could,” he said. “I don’t want to be that guy who says, ‘If I only would’ve.’”
What’s your take on these devices? Would you use one with your child?
(AP Photo)
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Loonanj commented on Oct 05 09 at 3:51 pmFrankly, I was hoping that this would be about implantable chips for tracking. When will those be available?
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