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LBRT: This house believes that children should have GPS-location chips that gives their parents a 24/7 location. Content:

1. Key Articles 2. Additional Resources

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ARTICLE 1 CAN WE MICROCHIP OUR KIDS TO PREVENT KIDNAPPING? Parents are increasingly looking to technology to keep tabs on their progeny March 18, 2015 At least twice a day, a parent calls BrickHouse Security, a Midtown salon of surveillance, with the same question: Is it possible to implant a

As Mr. Morris explained, it is not currently possible to microchip kids as

so they can be identified if they turn up at the pound

insert a chip under their skin, but a bulky cellular receiver and battery, too.

large b

But less intrusive child-tracking technology has become increasingly in demand at BrickHouse. With the New York State Department of Justice estimating that 20,124 kids were reported missing in 2013 with 8,003 of those occurring in New York City parents increasingly look to technology to keep tabs on their progeny.

4.0, a small, rectangular GPS tracker that

accompanying transmitter when the child has wandered more than 30 feet away. The products, Mr. Morris said, have become especially attractive to parents of children with special needs, such as autism. More than half of children with autism are wanderers, according to a 2012 study by the advocacy group Autism Speaks.

services, told the Observer.

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When it comes to wearable GPS trackers, parents might also be interested in Independence Day Clothing: A line created by former CNN anchor Lauren Thierry, whose son, Liam, has autism. Besides being reversible and devoid of buttons, tags and zippers common sensory triggers for kids with autism and Tourette Syndrome the clothing items have discreet, hidden compartments designed to store GPS trackers. An EMPOWER GPS tracker, which parents can monitor via smartphone, is available for free with every Independence Day order (customers will still, however, have to pay a $69.95 activation fee and $14.95 monthly service charge).

works better than forcing a kid to wear a special watch or ankle bracelet.

off

David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, questions whether GPS devices are the most effective means of tracking children. Imagine, for instance, if a child were abducted as part of a custody battle the most common form of child abduction, by a landslide. Of the 8,003 children reported missing in NYC in 2013, all but 15 were either

parent wanted to disappear with the child, knowledge about the child to disable or throw away whatever device it

If a tracking device is too conspicuous, you could always harness the power of something nearly every kid has nowadays: a cellphone. Consider the poyou track your lost device or, in the case of a 2013 incident in Texas, a lost child. In September 2013, a dad left his 5-year-old son in the car while he popped into a Houston liquor store. A thief jumped into the SUV and sped away the young boy still inside. With the help of his iPad, the

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stolen car. The program led police to his stolen vehicle, and, more importantly, his missing son. Another option is Followmee, a $3.99 GPS tracking app with around 100,000 users, according to founder Chris Li. Once the app is

default, the app registers their location every 10 minutes, but parents can adjust the settings so updates are as frequent as once a minute. The app also comes with a panic button. When pressed, parents will

ation.

every hour, I can see where

Whatever device parents end up using, the experts agree they should

child going missing as in the case of some children with autism or a vicious custody battle to go overboard with the tracking technology. At the end of the day, the risk of a child being abducted by a stranger is

BY: Jordyn Taylor SOURCE: Observer http://observer.com/2015/03/can-we-microchip-our-kids-to-prevent-kidnapping/

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ARTICLE 2 GPS WATCH LETS PARENTS KEEP AN EYE ON THEIR KIDS 24/7 -oriented watches are colorful, built to last and designed to give parents peace of mind March 28, 2014 Th , affecting nearly a million kids

to federal statistics, about 900,000 kids are reported missing by parents each year. The vast majority over 95% are located within hours. According to the people at Israeli start-

the HereO watch was designed. HereO is the first fashion watch designed for kids with a GPS chip installed, enabling parents to keep track of their little ones via an app which can locate them at all times. While there are GPS watches on the market aimed at children, most notably the AT&T Filip, HereO is the only one designed specifically for young kids, in the critical ages of 3-8. The HereO is also notably smaller than its competitor, and actually looks like the kind of colorful, cheap low-tech watch that kids like unlike the Filip, which is bigger and

miniaturized the technical components in order to make the smallest

In addition, the watch is designed to take the beating its designers CEO Gill Mendelson, COO Allon Gladstone and president Daniel Ivesha

expect kids to give it during rough-and-water resistant, made out of very hard-to-break plastic, weighs only

pp will also be usable without the watch, as a way to keep track of kids via their smartphones). The app sends parents real-time alerts not just when kids go missing, but when they arrive at school, soccer practice, etc. If someone attempts to remove the wout an emergency alert, indicating the exact location, so parents can take quick action

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addition, the watch can be programmed to send out alerts to multiple family mem The watch itself has a panic button, which kids can press to activate the emergency protocols (the button is on the outer edge of the watch, positioned in a way that makes it less likely to be pressed by accident, the company said). Parents also have the option of installing a SIM card,

HereO is still under development, with the watches expected in stores by July (the iPhone app will be in the App Store next month, the company said), when they will cost $149, with a $5/month subscription to the triangulation plan, which will work in 120 countries. HereO has sales offices in New Jersey and the UK, and plans to market its watches all over the world, the company said. The company is self-funded, with founders raising nearly a million dollars from family and friends as well as from crowdfunding site IndieGogo, where HereO has been running a fundraising campaign for the past two months (with about 3 weeks to go, the company has raised about $85,000 of its $100,000 goal). Contributors to the site will be able to get a watch for $99, plus a free six-month cell subscription. For kids, said HereO, the watches are a fashion statement. But for

BY: David Shamah SOURCE: The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/gps-watch-lets-parents-keep-eye-on-kids-247/

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ARTICLE 3 CARING OR CREEPY? THE GROWING TREND OF PARENTS USING GPS TRACKERS TO KEEP TABS ON THEIR CHILDREN ON HOLIDAY June 24, 2015 The fear of a child disappearing is a huge fear for parents on holiday. The US Department of Justice estimates that annually 340,500 children get separated from an adult for at least an hour and the market for GPS trackers for kids is expanding. But is this prudent or paranoid parenting? The industry for GPS trackers has boomed in recent years with over 290 models available to buy on Amazon alone. The demand reflects a growing need for increased protection for children who find themselves separated from their parents or guardians. In 2014, there were a staggering 466,949 entries for missing children under the age of 18 into the FBI's National Crime Information Center, with many more incidences going unreported. Todd Morris, founder of Brickhouse Security, told Yahoo that GPS devices are particularly useful for international travel. 'Travelling with multiple children in strange areas can be a high anxiety situation,' he says. 'Sometimes just knowing there's a safety net can help parents enjoy their vacation a bit more.' Loc8tor For Kids provides two types of tracker for parents to look after their children's safety. One, the Wander Alert, sends a notification to a handset when a child strays 600ft away from the sensor, while the other, a tiny GPS portable device that can fit into a pocket or in an arm strap, lets them view their child's location on a map on a laptop, tablet or phone. The latter is available for £99.98 and is accurate up to 16ft. It also comes with an in-built panic feature for emergencies. Parents should be aware that on top of the cost of the 60g device, a pay-as-you-go plan is required to stream the GPS data.

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The success of similar devices can be seen with Project Lifesaver, a nonprofit group that supports personal locator units for at-risk children, as well as adults prone to potentially life-threatening wandering. There have been 3,000 successful rescues in the past 16 years, with trained professionals reacting to the Wander Alert. The GPS trackers can be vital in helping protect children with a developmental disorder like autism, and even for adults suffering with dementia. The importance of the product was demonstrated by a high-tech GPS bracelet which helped track down a boy with autism when he wandered away from his school in Spokane in Washington. KXLY reported that mother Stephanie Lund bought the device for her nine-year-old son, Jakob who has Asperger's Syndrome. 'He wanted to go to a friends house on Friday before checking in with mum and dad,' Stephanie told the news site. 'And, unfortunately the friend said no you can't come over so he just continued walking rather than returning to the school,' said Samantha Lund. The worried mum called 911 and then dispatchers who activated the bracelet pinpointed Jakob's exact location, 15 block away from his school. Another product which aims to help keep children protected is Skynanny, a device carried on the child and which links to the Skynanny.net app, which can be downloaded to any iPhone or Android smartphone. Skynanny.net inventor Jason Petch, abducted as a six year old, said he was inspired to create the device after he lost his daughter Lucy at the beach when she was two. 'I couldn't find her for five minutes and sheer panic, absolute raw emotion goes through your body,' Mr Petch said. The experience brought back old memories for Mr Petch, from when he and a friend were abducted and held for 24 hours by an elderly lady in nearby street.

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'She invited me across the road to eat some mandarins,' Mr Petch said. 'She locked one of us in the cupboard while she played with other, and threatened to hurt the one in the cupboard if the other one ran away.' Worried about his own children, Mr Petch couldn't find a device that suited him, so he decided to invent one himself. The introduction of the product came at a similar time to research revealing that two-thirds of Australian fathers would think twice before approaching a child in distress in public over fears they would be labelled a predator. Not everyone is a fan of the device. While some call it paranoid parenting, others have concerns for more serious reasons. ABC Action News reported how there are new Florida laws which make it a misdemeanor crime to use tracking devices without the other person's consent. Using a tracker without consent can currently land you in jail for up to six months, although there are exceptions in this instance for law enforcement, parents and legal guardians of seniors and disabled people. BY: Becky Pemberton SOURCE: Daily Mail Online http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3137376/Caring-creepy-growing-trend-parents-using-GPS-trackers-tabs-children-holiday.html

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ARTICLE 4 MERRIAM POLICE OFFER GPS TRACKERS FOR SPECIAL-NEEDS CHILDREN Parents, police can quickly locate children who wander away November 10, 2015 MERRIAM, Kan. Police kick in all sorts of resources to find a child

child has special needs, including autism New technology is giving parents of special-needs children some peace of mind. Merriam police have launched a GPS program to help track children

been fighting for and police consider it a valuable tool. Isaiah Hill, 4, is happy and safe in his home, but his parents said he has a

with how fast he moves.

small child, that has been such a big concern before the watch became

Isaiah now wears a watch with a GPS tracking device that was provided by Merriam police. Through a special app, his parents can locate him at any time. The watch is also linked to Merriam police dispatchers and if Isaiah wanders away, dispatchers can find his location and send help. Police said they hope it will provide some comfort to parents whose children have special needs.

Families can choose a GPS bracelet or a watch. The bracelet has a locking device. The watches have some limited phone capabilities.

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Christia Hill.

Recipients who live in Merriam can apply for a device that comes with one year of monitoring service. The program came about because parents specifically asked the city for this type of help. BY: Kelly Eckerman SOURCE: KMBC-TV Kansas City http://www.kmbc.com/news/merriam-police-offer-gps-trackers-for-specialneeds-children/36367176

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ARTICLE 5 GPS TRACKING DEVICES HAVE NEW RESTRICTIONS UNDER FLORIDA LAW Tracking devices illegal without consent June 18, 2015 The web is full of ads for cheap but powerful tracking devices with lots of suggested uses, like tracking a piece of luggage, a package or a child. "Put one in your child's backpack and relax while you track their whereabouts at all times," says an ad for "Hide and Seek". But there's a dark side to this technology that makes GPS satellites your own personal eye in the sky. A U.S. Justice Department survey last year found one in every 13 stalking cases involved electronic monitoring. Ten states have banned it all together. "Tracking devices are very intrusive. If you put that tracking device on an individual's vehicle, you can actually see where that person is and that can be very dangerous to that person," said private investigator Albert Verile. Verile said his agency uses tracking devices but carefully and only on property that belongs to the client. He has no problem with the new Florida law just signed by the governor that makes it a misdemeanor crime to use tracking devices without the other person's consent. "We want to make sure everything that we compile and present to the courts, if it has to go that far, is going to be admissible. So if we're acting unethical or illegal, it's not going to be admissible in court and we're going to run into some issues," Verile said. Using a tracker without consent can land you in jail for up to six months. There are exceptions for law enforcement, parents and legal guardians of seniors and disabled people. BY: Brendan McLaughlin SOURCE: ABC Action News http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/crime/gps-tracking-devices-have-new-restrictions-under-florida-law

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ARTICLE 6 WOULD YOU USE A GPS DEVICE TO TRACK YOUR CHILD? February 5, 2016 Losing track of a child is a terrifying prospect. The recent emergence of

the falling prices of gadgets, seem to offer parents a tech solution. Swedish firm Trax, for example, has designed a GPS tracker, on sale for $249 (£170), that issues alerts when children step outside of pre-set

-smartphone or computer in real time. French company Weenect has also created a GPS trackbutton that allows distressed kids to call their parents. The device can send notifications when children reach a set destination and allows parents to review where their child has been throughout the day. A

r his GPS trackers. Currently,

for child trackers and the remaining 10% are for its Weenect Silver device, a tracker designed for elderly. Freedom from tracking However appealing such technologies may seem at first, they could have negative effects on the very children they aim to protect.

their children safe but they need to ask themselves whether tracking technology is really necessary and whether it will actually protect their

they think that they are constantly monitored by their parents and teachers.

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of the time. Children have a right to privacy as much as anyone else. They need private spaces to be able to play and grow without feeling they are constant Harmel believes the trackers should not be seen as spying devices. He says the purpose is to give children independence while reassuring

better for your kid: to not let them do anything on their own, or to let

Harmel stresses such technology requires good communication, advising parents to carefully explain the purpose of the tracker and

to be careful when out and about. Real-life parenting These gadgets can never be a replacement for parental attention, says

an additional security aid for parents and pet owners, a little bit of extra

A spokesperson from the NSPCC warned that tracking technology could lull some parents into a false sense of security, particularly when it

think this will keep the child safe from determined offenders, who will simply throw the device away. It is also important to remember that most abuse is perpetrated by offenders who are either part of the

part of developing independence and, like every part of growing up, it

NSPCC spokesperson. No technology can completely protect any child, and talking to them about dangers and teaching responsibility are necessary whether using trackers or not. Ultimately, trusting children to make the right decisions and giving them the freedom to do so is big part of growing up. This should not be lost sight of by parents, who may turn to tracking technology as a crutch to get over the difficulty of letting go.

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BY: Nicole Kobie SOURCE: The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/feb/05/big-mother-gps-tracking-technology-threat-privacy-childhood

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ARTICLE 7 DOES USING GPS TO TRACK CHILDREN PROVIDE FALSE SECURITY? April 9, 2014

st nightmare. Global positioning

purchasing expensive cell phones for young children is not very practical. Now a device marketed for parents of four to eight year olds has hit the stores. The FiLP can call up to five phone numbers, will receive short text messages, and is water and impact resistant. A parent can set up

leaves them. But do these devices create a false sense of security? Do they lull parents into believing that their children are protected? Do statistics about missing and abused children strengthen the argument for or against these devices? Parental Memory Versus GPS Monitoring Sciences such as epidemiology rely on geography. Research designed to track human exposure to environmental toxins requires accurate locations. Dr. Kai Elgethun and colleagues studied parents of 31 children, ages three to five. The scientists found parents were not very good at reporting where their children were. Parents who were asked to write down the location of their children in a diary and then had their reports checked against GPS data. The results?

while overestimating time spent inside other locations, outside at home, outside in other locations, a The study, reported in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, attributed the poor recall of the parents

Alternatively, perhaps the parents really were not sure about their

Parental and Child Acceptance of GPS

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(MPLD) differ in their acceptance of the technology. A 2013 study conducted in Singapore by Hee Jhee Jiow found that adolescent children who generally already disclose things to parents were more

parent child relational climate, was crucial in getting children to be more re The parents who used MPLD services reported being no less trusting of their children, however, some children found the devices evidence of

e

If parents who opt for GPS monitoring are not trusting of their children, it might be surmised that it is others that they do not trust. Is fear of abduction behind parental use of the devices? The study found that

GPS Tracking and False Security Parental fear has been associated with limiting the independent mobility of their children, particularly of girls. A study of the parents of 10 to 12 year ogirls, parental fear of strangers was associated with lower odds of

boys. However -danger parents need to worry about. The Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that of 828,600 reports of missing children, less than 2% were attributed to stranger abduction. Around 7% were abducted by family members, and 43% were missing due to a

the largest group, 357,600 children, or 47% were termed

Teens over fifteen made up 44% of those missing, with the second largest group being those twelve to fourteen years old.

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Protecting Kids and Building Relationships No parent can be blamed for wanting to protect their child. Yet the numbers suggest that supporting parents who are overwhelmed and teenagers who feel unwanted may make the biggest dent in the number of missing children. An electronic device may be helpful in tracking little ones, but a close relationship is even better. Starting while kids are young, and building opportunities for trusting relationships during the teen years, should prove more effective than GPS in the long run. BY: Gina Putt SOURCE: Decoded Science http://www.decodedscience.org/using-gps-track-children-provide-false-security/44471

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ARTICLE 8 CHIPS OFF THE BLOCK January 12, 2013 PAUL WALLICH usually walks his small son to the bus stthrow from their Vermont home. But he can use a robot too: a football-sized drone, hovering several metres off the ground, follows a beacon

device beams back video. Few parents are as handy as that, but even Luddites like the idea of keeping an electronic eye on the young. An early offering, in 2003, was

invented since then protect autistic children, who easily get lost, or into danger. Youngsters on Canadian farms wear radio tags on bracelets to signal their proximity to adults operating heavy machinery. Longer battery life and miniaturisation are making tracking cheaper and more practical. The easiest way is to use smartphones. Many mobile operators offer child-tracking at extra cost, but the number of free tracking applications is growing fast. Life360 rocketed from 1m registered users in 2010 to nearly 26m now. Berg Insight, a research firm, reckons that 70m Americans and Europeans will be tracking family members by 2016.

alerts about their behaviour: when they return home, or stray beyond an agreed boundary, or go out late. Speed detection reveals when somebody is in a vehicle and whether it is breaking the speed limit. No devices, so far, have full chaperone functions such as revealing furtive movements in a stationary vehicle. But some providers do have ingenious extra features. The pocket-sized tracking beacons of Amber Alert GPS, a company based in Utah, carry a microphone to let parents eavesdrop. SecuraTrac, a Californian firm, has a product that disables a

-mail and text functions when it is moving: that stops boy-

of sex offenders. Parents in Japan and America are the keenest on such gizmos. Europeans, seemingly more relaxed about child safety and with more complex privacy laws, are less enamoured. Some European countries

acking appeals particularly to middle-class families in South American

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countries who worry about gang crime and kidnapping, says André Malm, an analyst at Berg Insight. Public authorities are keen, too. Schools in Osaka began issuing radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to students in 2004. Sensors in

(though not what they do off the premises). In Dubai the same technology notifies parents when their progeny get on or off school buses. In March last year 20,000 schoolchildren in the Brazilian city of Vitoria da Conquista had radio tags sewn into their uniforms to help detect truants. In August 2012 two schools in San Antonio, Texas, embedded RFID tags in identity badges belonging to their 4,200 students. These help administrators to count students who turn up to class but miss the morning register. Because funding is linked to daily attendance, the system enables schools to claim more taxpayer cash. On January 8th a court lifted an earlier injunction halting the expulsion of a child who refused to wear the badge on religious grounds (some Christians liken the devices to the Mark of the Beast, foreseen in the Bible). The family intends to appeal. X marks the child But what about privacy? Enthusiasts say tracking means more freedom, not less. Parents who know they can easily find their children may be happier to let them roam. Teenagers are spared annoying phone calls. Daisy Ashford, a mother of children aged ten and eight who lives in

Amber Alert trackers. Her military family moves every 18 months, making it hard to develop a protective network of friends and

Critics say tracking does not really protect children. Savvy kidnappers will dispose of phones or other devices (implantable tracking chips are, so far, the stuff of spy movies only). And strangers rarely attack children anyway: parents are the most likely murderers, and accidents are a far

-Marie Oostveen, who studies surveillance at Oxford University. For fretful parents the new devices may just mean still more grounds for worry. The same technology also enables snooping on adults. In America mobile subscribers can buy location-tracking services for all users of a family phone plan. Some survivors of domestic violence say this makes

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it harder to escape. Parents use webcams to keep an eye on their

are contested, and covertly captured audio can break laws on wiretapping). A Saudi government agency that sends men text messages if their children leave the country also helps track wives. Others fear that children who submit to tracking in schools will more readily accept state surveillance in adulthood. In August a coalition of American civil-rights outfits advised schools not to make such tracking

where it operates, sensors should be visible. Small fixes can make tracking by parents more palatable, too. Services

ey move around, calm anxious grown-ups with less annoyance for the young. An app called Glympse lets users share their location for a few minutes at a time; WalkMeHome, a Swedish app also available in English, helps people share their whereabouts with trusted contacts any time they feel unsafe. A prototype tracker built by Microsoft substituted

-tracking drones but they are also less alarming. BY: The Economist SOURCE: http://www.economist.com/news/international/21569385-tracking-children-has-never-been-easier-nice-parents-not-privacy-chips

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

1.

http://www.freerangekids.com/now-you-can-check-in-with-your-child-electronically-all-day-long-dont/

2. The Emerging Ethics of Humancentric GPS Tracking and Monitoring

http://www3.nd.edu/~cpoellab/teaching/cse40827/papers/tracking.pdf

3. Three Myths about GPS & GPS Tracking https://www.amberalertgps.com/three-myths-about-gps-gps-tracking

4. Terrified Mexicans splash out on chip implants so satellites can trace them if they're kidnapped

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1048129/Terrified-Mexicans-splash-chip-implants-satellites-trace-theyre-kidnapped.html

5. What is the Difference Between GPS and RFID Tracking? http://www.brighthub.com/electronics/gps/articles/60599.aspx

6. INTERNET LAW - GPS Tracking for Children: Is It a Violation of

https://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=latestnews&id=2262