Following public concern over a couple of very high-profile abductions and murders of young kinds in the UK, the parents of an 11-year-old girl have asked to have a microchip implanted in her arm to enable them to track her location around the clock.
It remains to be seen whether this will be more than a one-off case (and so far it hasn’t even gone beyond the proposal stage). But what do people here think about it? Parents - would you want to be able to plot your kid’s whereabouts 24/7? Younger Dopers - would you resent your parents being able to track your every move, or would you welcome the extra security and peace of mind? The girl in question says she’s unconcerned about it, but maybe she’ll feel differently when she hits 16.
Expensive cars can be tracked in a similar way, and pets sometimes have subcutaneous ID chips implanted, but this is certainly an extreme extension of the CCTV surveillance techniques so far used to monitor public behaviour.
I would think parents would love this - they at least would be able to know where there child is at all times. The kids might not like it, but it is in their best interest, not in the interest of the parents’ being control freaks.
There should be a law stating that anyone with presence of mind sufficient to go to a medical doctor’s office and request such chip’s removal from their body shall automatically be deemed to possess the maturity and authority to make the decision, and the state picks up the charge.
No plans seem to have been made about the decision to remove the chip - like a lot of parents of 11-year-olds I expect they haven’t got a clear mental image of her being old enough to manage her own life.
This version of the story from the liberal Guardian newspaper highlights some technical considerations that haven’t been addressed yet, such as how the battery would be recharged and whether the device would emit constantly or only be switched on “in an emergency”. It also mentions that several childrens’ welfare charities don’t like the idea.
I don’t even know that it would be legal to carry out this plan. It would involve a surgical procedure yet serves no theraputic purpose, and medical ethics committees usually have something to say in such matters.
It is not in a child’s best interest to be tracked at a parent’s whim. It pains me to know that children are ever kidnaped or lost, but it would devastate me to know that we mark them for easy collection like tracking fish spawnging and bear movements.
And just how difficult would it be for an abductor to shield the signal from the chip, or if they’re truly violent simply dig it out of her body with a knife, and abduct her anyway? Even if there was a way to get reliable signal, renewable(powered by body heat?) energy, and a way to keep it from being easily disabled, this would not solve the problem. Kidnappers are people, human beings. Human beings show an unequaled ability to adapt. If anything this will make kidnapping more violent because they will have to remove the devices and if they don’t then they’ll have to accomplish their goal(rape, murder, etc) before the signal can be traced. A body being found the same day they were abducted is still a murder.
Bad idea parents. Truly bad idea. Like so many “security” measures, it only keeps the honest ones honest(and will alienate your daughter sooner or later). If this ever becomes common practice then it will be even more useless. Kidnappers will make it standard fare to remove/disable the device. Repeat after me, TECHNOLOGY WILL NOT SOLVE SOCIOLGIOCAL PROBLEMS.
But as soon as the signal was disrupted, all the parents have to do is see where the last signal originated from. After all, that’s what 24/7 tracking implies. A disruption in the signal would certainly be cause for alarm.
I don’t think it would stop all kinds of abductions, but there are certainly a fair number of kids who are abducted for the purpose of making money. You can’t ransom a dead kid; ergo, it might actually be an impediment to kidnapping. And you know, if the kidnapper is going to kill the child anyway, he or she will be just as prone to violence, with or without the chip. But because the chip would ostensibly be sending a constant signal, the kidnapper would either just kill the kid - which he would have done anyway - or try to block the signal - which would immediately alert the parents - or just think it’s not worth the effort.
I would think that if we accept it as a prima facie fact that children cannot consent to sexual conduct, then they surely cannot consent to having a chip inserted in them that will allow for 24/7 tracking of their movements.
I prefer the tracking chips be sewn into clothing, on a watch, or maybe a necklace or even a fake mole/scar. I am all for implants that enhance our abilities, but I too fear the violent kidnapper who takes a knife and goes cutting up a child looking for the GPS unit inside of his shielded van. If they put them in a standard location it will be easy for the kidnapper to remove. If they put it in a random location, he may have to go slicing up likely locations. Terrible scenario.
As far as parents monitoring their kid’s whereabouts, I know I would have hated to have been watched this way. Still, just cause a kid doesn’t like something does not mean his parents don’t have the right to do it. Rather than implant it, give the kid a pager with a GPS locator in it with a panic button. Parents should know where their kids are at all times. Now the kid KNOWS he is accountable. Implants should not be mandatory for children if they don’t want them. Accountability should.
I personally can’t wait to get some implants, but not to be tracked. I’m looking for more powerful eyes, communications devices, shared experience, floating video screens, stronger muscles and bones, a better heart, a faster mind, brain-machine connection (a kind of real telepathy), and who knows what else. The work that Kevin Warwick is doing is very interesting. As per the legality of elective surgery when none is really needed, you need look no further than Pamela Lee’s chest to see that you can implant whatever you like into yourself, provided it is not an illegal drug or a weapon.
From the page linked above (telepathy):
Too cool. brain implants are coming, as well as a whole bunch of other kind of implants. Neither human nor machine will rule the next era, rather a new beast that takes the best of both will roam the Earth, the Solar System and beyond. This stuff is coming quick.
DaLovin’ Dj (representing the Transhuman Jedi Turntablist contingent)
Something like this would make it extremely easy for kidnappers to catch kids. Instead of having to have some sort of plan to catch the kid all the kidnapper has to do is find the kids frequency and follow the kids movement around for a while and catch the kid when he/she is alone. Then because he has to kids frequency he can then put that on some other kid and the parents wont even know that the kid has been kidnapped.
Hmm. How about instead of 24/7 monitoring, a panic button of sorts? Say, a microtransmitter buried somewhere accessable but not likely to be bumped. If a kid’s ever kidnapped, stuck somewhere, being mugged, they activate it, and send a message to 911 bearing their current location.
Currently GPS signals can be blocked by countless things. A GPS signal is only reliable if there is a decent number of satelites tracking that frequency. If only a handful of satelites are tracking that frequency, then something as simple as walking under a large tree could disrupt the signal.
Regardless I don’t see a good way to use this. Either monitor it 24/7 and give the child virtually no privacy, or don’t monitor it 24/7 and negate it’s benefit. I saw no mention in the article of who will be responsible for the monitoring. I’m assuming it would be outsourced to a company who does those types of locating, (LOJack and it’s ilk) and this raises further concerns for how this information will be safeguarded. A system that can track a large number of underage girls location 24/7 would be some sociopath’s wet dream.
On the surface it may seem like a decent idea, the LoJack service(a GPS system in cars that can help track them in the event of a theft) says it has helped recover 90% of protected vehicles, usually within a day. This is a remarkable statistic. If we could cut kidnapping cases by a similar margin this would be a much better place to live. I still have a problem with the system, even if the technical issues can be overcome, primarially for privacy reasons.
And if the girl does NOT have a problem with it, then she has probably had her individuality squashed by overbearing/overprotective/controlling parents already.
With respect, dalovindj, this part of your post is significantly off topic. I agree that Professor Warwick’s work is very interesting, but neither he nor Pamela Anderson are 11-year-old girls.
