Children's GPS Tracker

Bodgedeejay

So my eldest son is now getting to the age where he enjoys to play out with his friends. However his mum is very worried about letting him loose.
I have been looking at these GPS trackers moochies in particular but I'm not sure if they are trusted devices or worth the money.

Does anyone have one or give light as to whether they are worth it?

joeypesci

Doesn't seem to be much in reviews online, that's probably saying something. Also you have to be aware, and we hope this never happens, if someone was to take a kid wearing one of these, they'll just take it off them and dump it.

Neil_Jones

Its been proven time and time again that GPS is not accurate, typically to only within a range of about 5m which worsens as you get around buildings and under cover, even if its just under a few trees. If trackers sewn into clothes they can be removed as can wrist bands. Effectively micro-chipping a kid like a dog would solve that problem but that opens up moral issues.

I'm not going to dictate what you should do, that's obviously up to you. But please don't take what I'm about to write the wrong way - your wrapping your eldest in cotton wool so to speak isn't doing him any favours. I don't believe the world is any more dangerous in 2017 than it was 30 years ago. Okay there's more traffic around, we run our lives from phones in our pockets and everything's more expensive but apart from that, its the same world. It was navigable by common sense and using our brains and eyes, practising "Stranger Danger" and so on. Today's kids can do that easily. For measured "danger" including using axes and making fires, find your local Scout group or similar. But realistically the risk of your child being abducted is quite low. Seriously.

Here's an interesting page:
https://www.familyadventureproject.org/2012/01/10-reasons-to-stop-being-a-cotton-wool-parent/

AndyPix

^^^ What he said

John_Gray

I rather liked the microchipping idea! :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

I used to roam for miles when I was 10 years old from dusk to dawn. Unheard of now. Kids aren't even allowed to play in the back garden never mind off the property.

JP1978

If your talking about this little GPS disks, they operate on bluetooth and rely on people nearby having an app on their phone so that they can relay the position back to you. They dont have their own independent means of relaying their signal to you.

boo_star

Neil_Jones wrote: »

Its been proven time and time again that GPS is not accurate, typically to only within a range of about 5m which worsens as you get around buildings and under cover, even if its just under a few trees. If trackers sewn into clothes they can be removed as can wrist bands. Effectively micro-chipping a kid like a dog would solve that problem but that opens up moral issues.

I think even giving a kid a GPS device to track them raises moral issues.

It’s amazing that any of us managed to survive childhood without a GPS tracker being attached to our ear so our parents could track our every movement.

Perhaps the OP should just let their kids and learn their own lessons.

bob_a_builder

If your talking about this little GPS disks, they operate on bluetooth

I would have thought he was thinking of something more like a Trackimo (LINK)
Pretty small unit
I know them from people using them to track their quadcopter in case it goes off piste ( no moral quandary there )

Ant555

If he has an iPhone then you already have something you can try out using 'find my iphone'

joeypesci

Deleted_User wrote: »

I used to roam for miles when I was 10 years old from dusk to dawn. Unheard of now. Kids aren't even allowed to play in the back garden never mind off the property.

But its still a myth that kids weren't "taken" then. Much like how some old people say "It was good in our days during the war. You didn't have to lock your doors blah blah". And old guy on a document once said "That is bollards. There was as much crime then as now". People talking about solidarity during the blitz. But never talk about all the robberies that were known to of happened during black outs and bombings.