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GPS
Technology Helps Parents Track Teens |
Posted:
2.19.07
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The use of Global Positioning System Technology (GPS) in cars
and phones to help parents track where kids are and how fast they're
driving has sparked heated debates about the lines between privacy
and safety.
Printer-friendly version: PDF
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 The
same technology used to find hikers lost in snowstorms and track
tanks on the battlefield has found a new use -- figuring out if
you really are at the mall and if you keep to 15 miles per hour
in the school zone.
Global Positioning System (GPS) technology has been around since
1978. There are many military applications for the system, which
relies on approximately 30 orbiting satellites maintained by the
U.S. Air Force, but increasingly, civilians are using it to predict
weather, plot directions and track one another.
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Monitored
cars |
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One of the most popular applications of GPS technology for parents
has been a small box that is plugged into a car dashboard, allowing
them to remotely download data, including the car's location and
speed, from the box onto their computer.
In fact, some of these devices automatically email or call parents
when their child is speeding or has entered a location previously
designated as off limits. In some cases, parents can remotely
sound an alarm, honk the horn or flash a light when their teen
is driving too fast.
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Phone technology |
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GPS tracking of cell phones is also popular with parents who
want to know where their children are. Parents can sign up for
services such as Sprint Family Locator, Disney Mobile, and Verizon
Wireless Chaperone that enable them to look up a cell phone's
location online.
 Verizon's
service allows parents to mark up to 10 areas with "virtual
fencing," and sends a text message if the car breaches a
boundary.
Sprint is the only company to inform children about their parents'
activities, sending a text message to children each time their
parents perform a location check.
There are no rules requiring parents to inform their children
that they are being monitored. It is up to the parents to decide
whether to tell their kids or not.
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Tools to
Protect Teens |
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Advocates for these tracking devices say they help reduce risky
behavior, and may even save lives.
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among 15-
to 20-year-olds, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration.
 Jack
Church, spokesman for Teen Arrive Alive, a Florida company that
offers GPS-enabled cell phones, said in a 2006 San Francisco Gate
article, "This is about parents being given tools to better
protect their kids. That's not Big Brother. That's parenting."
When teenager Paige White of Los Gatos, California learned her
parents had secretly installed a GPS tracking device in her SUV
she was shocked and angry.
"I was kind of mad because I felt it was an invasion of
my privacy," she told the San Francisco Gate.
But now White says she likes the device. "It helps me watch
my speed and keeps me honest," she told the Gate.
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Big Brother? |
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Not all teens are happy about the new technology. Katt Hemman,
a 17 year-old from Hutchinson, Kansas, told the Southeast Missourian
in 2006 that parents' arguments in favor of using the tracking
technology mirror those made by the Bush administration in defending
warrantless wiretapping.
 "A
marginal increase in safety isn't worth forfeiting our civil rights,
and adults who balk at being spied on and then turn around and
spy themselves are hypocrites," she said.
And some psychiatrists argue the tracking devices raise issues
of trust and sometimes replace communication and dialogue.
Tracking can lead "parents to think there are technical
solutions to human problems," Stephen Mintz, co-chair of
the Council on Contemporary Families, told the Oakland Tribune
in 2006.
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In Case of
Emergency |
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But many parents believe they have much to gain from knowing
if their son or daughter is at the library, or a party.
James Davis told the McClatchy/Tribune news service that the
Sprint phone equipped with GPS technology he bought his 14-year-old
stepdaughter gives him "peace of mind."
"You're never too old to get kidnapped. As long as I know
my daughter has her cell phone on her, for a fee, I can know exactly
where she's at," he said.
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Not a perfect
technology |
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However, the tracking technology is not infallible. The cell
phone tracking systems don't always get reception, especially
in remote areas. And, as Delly Tamer, founder of online retailer
LetsTalk.com told The Dallas Morning News, the locator service
"does not work if the phone is off."
Despite the concerns from some young people and privacy advocates,
more GPS-enabled devices are in development, ensuring the debate
over safety and privacy will only grow in coming years.
--Compiled
by Melissa J. Hipolit for NewsHour Extra
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