System lets parents track teens via cellphones

[Fred Derf Veteran]

Aug. 10, 2005. 06:16 AM

Mom can track you

System lets parents locate cellphones

But is such close surveillance healthy?

TRISH CRAWFORD

LIFE WRITER

When Toronto songwriter Amy Sky became concerned recently that her 14-year-old daughter hadn't come home around dinnertime, she ran to her computer.

Sky clicked on a website set up by Bell Mobility and a map of downtown Toronto popped up on the screen. It showed her that Zoe was at the corner of Yonge and Dundas Sts.

It had tracked down her cellphone using GPS (global positioning satellite) and cell site location technology and left her a text message that she had been located.

Knowing this intersection was in fact the location of the Eaton Centre, Sky breathed a sigh of relief that Zoe was merely shopping for camp clothes.

Sky's family was one of five Toronto families that have been test-driving the new Seek and Find program for Bell Mobility. The company launched the product Canada-wide yesterday.

Families can get 20 "locates" a month for $5, or pay 50 cents each.

Experts in child development question whether this level of surveillance is healthy, suggesting it can generate excessive fear in young children of abduction or getting lost, and make teenagers feel they aren't trusted.

"It's not much of a step away from what we do with dogs and prisoners," said Gary Charles Walters, professor emeritus in psychology at the University of Toronto.

Walters, an expert in parenting, said it is much more important to teach children they must be responsible.

"I'd feel creepy telling a young person, `You can't go out until you take this phone,'" he said. "It's just a long leash."

Although her daughter and 11-year-old son weren't crazy about the idea at first, Sky said that they agreed when she called it "a backup plan for all of us."

Parents can't rely on just calling their kids, Sky explained, because kids don't always hear their phones ring.

"The phone is in the backpack and it gets left at the front door, but they are in the basement or the backyard. This way, I know where they are even if they don't answer."

The cellphone must be turned on for the tracking device to work and the person is always notified that they have been located, said Ken Truffen, director of data marketing for Bell Mobility. As well, user names and passwords are required with each search. This ensures that no one is monitored without their knowledge, he said.

The product is being marketed mostly to the parents of young children.

The father of three said his wife used the tracking system this week when their 6-year-old daughter was at a day-camp field trip, to check that she had arrived at the camp safely.

Bell Mobility has used the GPS system for its roadside assistance program, but it is the first phone company in North America to use it for personal security, Truffen said.

All Bell Mobility phones sold in the past year are equipped with the technology needed to use the system, Truffen said.

Some of the program's other features involve notification by computer when a child has reached a designated landmark, such as school.

Truffen points out that the program locates the phone, not its owner, and that it is a permission-based system. To stop the locating service, you simply turn off the phone.

Dr. Jean-Victor Wittenberg, staff psychiatrist at the Hospital for Sick Children, agrees security is a legitimate concern for parents. But he argues the tracking system shouldn't be used against children's wishes or as an alternative to proper communication.

"Parents need to know where their kids are. But it's not about following them or putting them in boxes. If a child says, `I don't mind you knowing where I am,' that's fine."

Balancing a child's quest for independence and a parent's need to know they are safe "is an important dance for children and parents to engage in together," Wittenberg said, "and it needs collaboration."

Also, parents shouldn't count on technology alone to ensure their kids are safe, he said. Knowing where they are doesn't mean you know who they are with or what they are doing.

"Healthy parent-child relationships have healthy discussions. If the technology is intrusive, it can be seen as parental control and mistrust."

Dr. Douglas Saunders, assistant professor in public health sciences at U of T, warned there are dangers in relying too heavily on technology.

Parents of young children, for instance, may not make sure their kids are carefully handed off from person to person.

"It can do more harm if they think they can always locate them (using the phone)," Saunders said. "People need to make deliberate and conscious arrangements."

It is a parent's responsibility to keep their children safe in a way that doesn't put the burden onto the kids, Saunders said, adding making them keep their phone on all day can frighten them unnecessarily.

"How much do you want to overwhelm them with a psychology of fear?"

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...id=968332188492