A leading US missing child advocacy group is warning parents that spending hundreds of dollars on space satellite technology to keep track of their children may not be as effective as they think.
The group says the technology exploits paranoia generated by recent headlines of kidnapped children, and may lead to ignorance of basic safety lessons for children.
The company heading the charge for this new technology, Wherify Wireless of the San Francisco neighboring city of Redwood Shores, counters that one child saved with the device justifies the system.
The system centers on a relatively large, colorful plastic wrist device, worn by a child. The device uses navigation satellites circling the globe to pinpoint the child's location.
The wrist locators, which go on sale next month, already have a backlog of "thousands" of orders, says Tim Neher, the founder and chief executive of Wherify. "We are seeing an incredible response."
Technology got a big boost in the missing children field earlier this month after the success of the "Amber Alert" system in the US western state of California.
In that headline case, two teenage girls were recovered and their alleged assailant shot dead by police after the license plate of the kidnapper's truck was broadcast over roadside electrical signs.
"Technology can be the tool that leads the way for child abduction prevention," said Neher.
But missing child experts fear the reliance on such systems as Wherify will mislead parents.
Few abducted
According to Tina Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, only some 200 to 300 US children out of a possible pool of 60 million US children are abducted by strangers overnight or for a significant amount of time.
Using free safety rules, not expensive technology, is a more appropriate response, Schwartz said. "Every year, there's another technology that supposedly is a solution to the problem of child abductions," said Schwartz. "But the best tools are simple common sense, such as knowing where your child is, keeping a young child in your line of sigh, giving your child basic lessons in avoiding going with strangers, that sort of thing."
Global positioning system technology is limited because its signals have a very difficult, if not impossible, chance of penetrating any building that's not a full wood-frame structure. A child's GPS bracelet, she said, would have a hard time finding a homing satellite in a basement or in a commercial apartment building.
Neher admits his device isn't perfect. "But if this technology saves one child's life, it's worth it," he declared.
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