Swing timers installed in Taipei public parks have come under fire for poor design after many were found broken within two weeks, adding to calls for the city to abandon the policy.
Seeking a solution to disputes caused by children monopolizing swings, the Taipei Parks and Street Lights Office on Oct. 9 installed timers in six parks, which emit an alarm after three minutes of use.
If the trial in Daan Forest Park (大安森林公園), Youth Park (青年公園), Nangang Park (南港公園), Qiangang Park (前港公園), Bihu Park (碧湖公園) and Taipei Flora Expo Park (台北花博公園) proves successful, the office plans to implement the technology across the city, it said.
Photo: CNA
However, critics were quick to condemn the plan.
The Association of Parents Participating in Education led the charge, on Saturday last week launching a petition to remove the timers and interviewing 100 children about the policy.
“One of the reasons for installing the timers is to promote sharing, but the parks office does not seem to understand that sharing must be spontaneous,” the association said.
Forcing the matter instills fear rather than kinship as the impulse behind sharing, it said, adding that the timers would “kill children’s ability to learn to share and become spontaneous, autonomous, empathic and whole people.”
Taipei City Councilor Meredith Huang (黃郁芬) said that the devices were poorly designed.
She had visited Qiangang Park on Monday to check on the timer, but only found an empty metal case, Huang wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
The office told her it had been damaged because the case was not water resistant, so the manufacturer took it back for repairs, she wrote.
“How long did the timer last? From installation on Oct. 9 to now, it has only been 10 days,” she wrote.
The problem was not limited to Qiangang Park, Huang said, adding that nearly half of the devices were already broken, including one that broke after only two days.
She said that the devices can also be manipulated, extending the time before the alarm.
In her efforts, Huang said she had spoken to a child who changes the limit to an hour by putting their hand into the box at a certain angle.
They were also installed too high for smaller children to reach, while the cases’ sharp corners are dangerous, she added.
All of these issues should have been addressed before the trial began, Huang said, recommending that the office keep these findings in mind when considering whether to expand the system.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard