Tragic Example Of The Dangers Of Relying Too Much On Kid Tracking
from the makes-things-worse,-not-better dept
Back in September, we wondered what all the fuss was from people who thought the ability to locate their kids via GPS chips in mobile phones was somehow a "safety feature." In fact, we thought it was likely to make the situation worse. First, there's the chance that this could be abused completely -- and a potential abductor (most kidnappers are relatives, after all) could find out where the kid is via this technology for the purpose of kidnapping them. Then, any abductor would quickly get rid of the phone before they could be tracked. However, parents might feel more secure, and not teach their kids the necessary street smarts to avoid situations where they're at risk. Russell Buckley, at the Mobile Weblog, is now pointing out, tragically, it appears that's exactly what happened in Japan. While the kidnappers left the phone with the kid for a bit, it didn't do them any good in tracking them down, and eventually the phone was ditched, before the girl was killed. It's understandable that parents want to keep an eye on their children to protect them, but this technology gives a false sense of protection, and can often make things even worse.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Gray areas
That said, there is a large gray area in that culture. In America, we have severe social taboos against children talking to strangers. Over in Japan, you've got e.g. lonely old people eager to buy lunch for a kid, someone who offers a ride to a kid just to be nice. There was one recent episode in Osaka where an old man with a box of unwanted desserts forced two boys to eat them, and the boys got sick and had to go to the hospital because they were told not to take candy from strangers, and got freaked about it. The symptoms turned out to be entirely psychosomatic, the desserts were harmless -- the old man was just being a little rough in his tactics.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
GPS phones
This isn't the first site I've seen making this GPS tech out to somehow be anything more than the passive tool I believe it to be, I'd be interested in hearing the logic behind the idea that the GPS feature is in any way dangerous.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: GPS phones
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: GPS phones
Any technology can be overhyped. However, common sense tells us that being able to know the location of an asset, of any description, is at least one link in the chain of links required to secure it. I don't sell GPS phones or bracelet's, etc, for children ... but if my own children were still young and at home, they would each be carrying one. Such a small, cheap device would have added one more level in security during those worrysome years when they were young.
Is GPS tracking a be-all and end-all for anything? Not that I know of, but since you and I and every other taxpayer pays for it every April 15th, I can't see the point in denigrating cheap, effective applications of the technology that do help people ... especially when the facts of the denigration just aren't there.
Best regards
Dave
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: GPS phones
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: GPS phones
Details at http://www.zakzak.co.jp/top/2004_11/t2004112002.html
There was someone on 2ch.net, an all-purpose Japanese forum site, who bragged about commiting a crime like this a few days before the incident.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Latest theory
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Bad ads?
The main page was showing a bunch of left-field ads like credit cards and debt consolidation, too.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]