Swedish daycare centers use GPS to track children

[The Northerner]

STOCKHOLM—Daycare centers in Sweden have started using GPS systems and other electronic tracking devices to keep tabs on children during excursions -- a practice that has raised ethical and practical questions.

Some parents are worried day care centers will use the technology to replace staff. Others wonder whether getting children used to being under surveillance could affect their idea of privacy when they grow older.

Monica Blank-Hedqvist, the principal of a daycare center in the city of Borlange told The Associated Press on Wednesday her staff have been using such devices during supervised walks in the forest: the kids wear vests with transmitters that staff can track on a screen.

"It is excellent, it has been only positive for us," Blank-Hedqvist said.

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/09/21/1506398/swedish-daycare-centers-use-gps.html

[alp227]

1. And Sweden = the role model for policy reform?

not when theyre doing PATRIOT Act style tactics on kids

[ChandlerJr]

2. Remember years ago when the argument was whether or not it was

demeaning for parents to put their kids in a harness and leash?

At least they're getting hi-tech.

[abelenkpe]

3. Every time my kids are on a field trip away from school

I worry like crazy. I wouldn't mind if they wore a vest to help track them should they become separated from their classmates. It's not a chip implanted under their skin.

[MADem]

4. The best place to put such a chip would be in the shoes.

Even kidnappers, so 'they' (the people who study these things) say, will often change a child's appearance with new clothes and a haircut, even hair dye, but the shoes the kid was 'napped in are often the last things to be jettisoned.

If you give a kid a cellphone, it's the same as giving them a chip. It's just a chip that is easier to lose/get stolen.

[abelenkpe]

6. That's good to know!

I have thought of getting them cell phones, but figured they'd lose them. They are only in first in third grade after all ;)

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. If it is for offsite trips, not so sure it is a bad thing

[Warren DeMontague]

7. ZOMG! This is exactly what the Illuminati have been planning at the Bohemian Grove!!!!

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!