

Child-tracking wristbands edge us closer to a dystopian future - martingoodson
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/10/child-tracking-wristbands-dystopian-future-ces-2014

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TehCorwiz
The thing that pisses me off about prognostication like this is the assumption
that this will become the norm. Between thoughtful parents and school systems
who choose not to participate through to the realities of poverty and the
wealth gap something like this will never occur. For the small segment of the
population which does use it -- those among the wealthiest of the middle-class
-- it will be a short-lived fad which lasts the three or so years that this
current crop of students happens to be between the ages of 9 and 12. Then
puberty starts to kick in and they refuse to wear it. Not to mention the
social stigma which will follow a child wearing such a tracker.

Since GPS first landed in consumer hands this future has been pitched at us.
Each time it's gone quietly into the night. First it was a shoe (since
trackers were larger then), then a wrist-band, then a custom phone, then any
phone, now it's back to the wrist-band.

It's a bad idea which gets progressively worse each time it comes up and less
scary because all you have to do to make it go away is to make it un-cool.

