Friday, February 16, 2007

Do you know where your children are?

MySpace and other social networking websites are currently struggling to keep their audiences engaged. When they were first launched, however, these sites had the opposite problem - they were too engaging. Especially for predators looking for young children. This has led to the creation of a large market that combines security companies and mobile handset manufacturers such as NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank.

"Mobile-phone and security companies in this safe Asian nation sell phones and school bags with GPS devices to help parents overcome fears." Read the article here.

This is in alignment of technology leading us to the ubiquitous network and Web 3.0 with the convergence of, what has now become, utility devices such as cellphones and GPS technology. Throw in WiMAX and you've got the platform for what could (and will) become an improved way to stay connected. With companies like Softbank providing content for children on portal websites like Yahoo! Kids, I think this is a very good example of responsible companies mitigating the risk associated with having sensitive information about children available online.

2 comments:

Weimin said...

Good gadget, but do kids want to be traced by their parents? :)

JI said...

Why don't children have rights? Where does this stop?

I was watchin an episode of "Hogan Knows Best" the other day and the Hulk was tracking his 16 year old daughter on a date. When does invasion of privacy start? What kind of rebellion are you breeding by enabling hyper protective parents throughout a child's life?

Imagine how crazy those kids are going to go during orientation week Freshman year.