Worried about the welfare of your children? Think that being able to use their cellphone to track their whereabouts will help? Then think again.
Less than a year after mobile phone tracking services were launched in the UK, children’s charities are demanding tighter controls on the technology. Without proper regulation, they say, these services could themselves put children at risk.
Services that can track phones to within about 150 metres were introduced in Europe to allow emergency services to trace calls. Other paid-for location services then emerged, including those allowing parents to keep tabs on their children.
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But on 8 July the Children’s Charities’ Coalition on Internet Safety (CHIS) urged the UK government to require companies offering such services to establish who is subscribing to them and what their relationship is to the child. “New tracking services will be even more accurate at pinpointing where someone is. We must get this absolutely right to ensure the safety of our children,” says John Carr of CHIS.
By the end of next year, US regulations will require all mobile phones to be traceable to within 50 metres. “There is going to be a great deal of debate about this technology, how it’s being used and who has access to it,” says David Shapiro of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Virginia. Ultimately, he says, the best way to protect children is not to rely on technology but to alert them to the dangers they face.
