Parents worry about their kids. All mammals I’ve ever heard of do this. So when you tell human parents that they can have a better chance of finding their kids if their kids are missing, injured, or abducted, that’s going to appeal.
I don’t believe it’s about sUrVeIlLaNcE at all.
Just because they can, doesn’t mean they should. Is there a significant net benefit, or is it just fear monetized?
The problem in this thread seems to be that children are seen as one homogenous group of people between ages 0 to 17. And you can either send you 5 year old to NYC without any technology by themselves, or check your 17 year old’s location 24/7. Forget about any kind of in between.
Like, of course I am “surveilling” my 3 year old, I am literally obligated to. I do this with my own eyes or leave them in the care of a capable person, although depending on the situation (relative, babysitter, daycare) it is still me who is liable when something happens.
I am happy to leave my 8 year old rumble around freely as long as they return home by a time that we agreed on. We can very well also agree on them calling if they won’t make it home by the agreed time, and if they don’t call or pick up their phone within an additional 30 minutes, I will check their location. This can be a known and agreed upon checking. And it is about mutual trust. I trust my kid at a certain age to be responsible and keep track of time, and be available by phone (unless otherwise agreed or if they don’t have a phone to begin with), as well as be where we agreed they would be, without checking. And I hope my kid will also trust me to keep up my side of the agreement. I won’t check unless it’s past return time and you are not picking up your phone.
This mutual trust is important in families. You deserve privacy, even if you are a kindergartener. This privacy will expand with age. This is like hiding your locked diary or leaving an open diary on your desk. You should not feel the need to hide it because I for sure won’t look at it. It is yours. Similarly, you can roam around freely even with an airtag. This thing is not for daily use.
Now, does my 17 year old need an airtag? To me they are basically an adult. Hell knows I had all the freedom in the world at that age. If they feel safer knowing I could check on them when they are on a night out, maybe we can keep a similar agreement as above. But otherwise it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to me.
Maybe good in a country that has barily any walking or cycling infrastructure, where every idiot has a gun and where all the biggest serial killers originate from. And where recently your kid can be kidnapped by unmarked unrecognizable fake police and sent to a concentration camp in El Salvador without any legal process.
But when you live in a first world country, your 8 year old should be able to go to school by bike on his own without issues what so ever, would never be kidnapped and would be brought home by a concerned neighbor when he falls and get injured. And would never get lost. You don’t need an air tag for that. I’ve even seen kids go to school on their own in Cambodia without issues. They have over 40 different deadly snakes including 6 types of cobras.
When you treat a kid as an irresponsible criminal and/or idiot, that’s what they will become.
This reminds me of an episode of Black Mirror that I can’t remember the name of.
I’m guessing Arkangel
Yes! You’re the best!
For mine kid(if I would have them) I would tell them to have those tracks, but only with a deal to not use it against kid. Like kid skipped a school and I will can’t use that track info as a proof to punish kid. So, only use it as a real safety of kid, not as spying it
Cool now strangers can track them without effort.
Can you register a random AirTag?
I’m pretty sure you can’t track them through the network. You can’t say “track this air tag wherever it goes”.
But you could use a device to track the signal the air tag emits as long as you’re in range.
Doesn’t the AirTag’s emitted ID cycle and change?
I don’t know myself, but it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to track the change. Just look at when tracker abc disappears and when tracker xyz takes its place. Unless you’re in an area with lots of trackers, it wouldn’t be too difficult to weed out the target tracker.
If not, then cool, your parents can give that info to your creepy uncle Steve. He’s just gonna pick you up from school one day. Better hope he doesn’t bring his white van.
“Can”? Were they physically unable to before?
It is likely more that they are designed to have AirTags with special compartments.
As if kids won’t suss that out in two heartbeats.
Depends on their age. I have young kids and love in the inner city. These would be handy but you’d need it in every shoe or it’s pointless.
I mean, nice that you have kids. But why are you bringing your mistress who lives downtown into this? :D
“Surveillance-minded” (hereafter, “Helicopter”) parents were almost certainly already doing that.
It just required a sharp knife and a tube of contact adhesive previously.
I was under the impression this is the main selling point of AirTags. Is there a real market for tracking lost luggage? I see AirTags being sold in every Kid’s store around here.
My dog has one on her collar. She got lost once, after chasing a squirrel, so it was a no brainer. The cool thing is that you can make it go off, by pressing a button, and train the dog to come to you when it chirps. I hope I never need to use it in an emergency, but it’s good to know I’m prepared.
Isnt that chirp kind of loud to be right next to their really sensitive ears? Ive only heard a 3rd party one chirp and it hurt…
The AirTag chirp is not that loud. Yes if you held it right to your ear canal it might be uncomfortable but the distance from neck collar to ear I wouldn’t worry about.
That makes me feel a little better. Dobt they have much more sensitive hearing than we do though?
Any dog’s bark is significantly louder than an AirTag chirp. It’s fine.
That’s a great recall cue.
I have one in a very well hidden pocket in my backpack. Because it’s my gig bag, and goes with me when I’m working in the field. If I were just leaving it under my desk all day, I wouldn’t bother. But since it often ends up sitting in the corner of a random room while I run around a building, it has an AirTag buried in it.
That’s kind of dumb.
Depends on the age. For a 3-5 year old prone to sneaking out on adventures it could be useful.
Just one problem: Mine tended to attempt their escape barefoot.
Exactly, for toddlers/children this can prove to be useful. This is not a product for older children or even teens, like it is assumed to be.
The shoe in the screenshotted video looks sized for an older kid, though.
The peak of evolved kids shoes are those with wheels on the heels (“Heelys”)
“surveillance-minded parents”… Are they trying to put a negative spin on it?
Knowing where your underage kid is is a must these days. Lots of crazy people out there.
Lots of crazy people out there.
Yeah. Your surveillance-minded family members.
These days they have phones on them. Imagine raising a kid in the 90s or earlier.
Phones can be taken. It’s less improbable to the shoes to be taken.
I’m saying my mom let me go outside and play with friends when there weren’t even phones you could just put in your pocket and be available. Whoever’s yard you were hanging out at, their parents said it was dinner time and that’s how you knew to go home too.
Ya gotta have SOME level of trust for your kids, otherwise you’ll never have a healthy relationship with them.
I think you’re one of those crazy people. Honestly, no one with that level of control obsession should be allowed to have children.
You’re thinking wrong.
You guys are confusing safety with surveillance because of the obvious clickbaity title of the article.
Having the option to know where your children are is not the same as controlling them. Parent intent matters and any tool can be abused, which doesn’t mean the tool is wrong.
You’re teaching your children to accept highly invasive surveillance. And for what? Just so you can surrender to a moral panic about stranger danger, when actual rates of childhood abduction and abuse are at historic lows. You’re failing to properly raise citizens of a healthy democratic society. Instead, you’re raising children to accept living in an authoritarian society. If kids grow up with their own parents spying on them, why would they ever think the government and corporations spying on them is wrong? You surrendered the freedom of your own children, just to give in to your own irrational insecurities. But you tell yourself that your case is different, that you’re violating their privacy for their own good. This is exactly what every authoritarian government tells their citizens. It’s for your own good; that’s what they always say. You are failing to teach your children to have the values necessary to be citizens in a healthy democracy.
The road to Hell is paved with “for the children.”
They’re AirTags in shoes, dude. Kids aren’t learning to submit to authoritarians because of Sketchers, they’re just finding their shoes faster.
And that’s what the proles told each other about telescreens.
“It’s just a telescreen dood, just chill.”
showing my age but when I was a kid during the summer or on weekends I’d be out of the house all day and just where ever in my town. My parents didn’t care as long as I was either home for dinner or by the time the street lights came on. and if I wasn’t home for dinner I had to find a phone and call not because my parents would be worried but so they either wouldn’t have to cook as much or set out a plate for me.
Glad you’re still alive!
It’s 10 pm, do you know where your kids are?
Kids have a distinct advantage in this ongoing consumer tech war between parents and kids.
I don’t use TikTok, but I’d be pretty surprised if this wasn’t already starting to trend there, along with ideas for where to put the airtags to fool parents.
Maybe just… talk to your kids?
I’m not concerned with tracking where my kids are with these, but tracking their shoes sounds kinda useful. Average daily conversation in my house:
"Where are you shoes?" "I don't know?" "You were just in the middle of putting them on!?!!" "Yeah but... I can't find them now." "How? You had them in your hands?!?" "That was, um, before I got distracted." "*sigh* Let's go try and find them."Are your kids smoking weed?
Nope, kids are just like this
ADHD is a hell of a drug
be kid
find this in your shoe
get idea
catch seagull
tie airtag to its foot.
go see mom having a fit
The Simpsons already did it.
When the kids find the “hidden” compartments immediately and swap their tags around.
Parent: “Why does Billy keep going to his friend’s house in the other county?”
Is there an open sources solution for GPS tracking devices that size? Because I feel like we need something to counteract people willing to trust Apple to track people and things everywhere.
