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Product: Cell Phone: Location
Teen Cell Phone/Locator   (+6, -4)  [vote for, against]
Always know where your teens are

An improvement on the regular cell phones. Most teens already have cell phones. These new cell phones contain GPS receivers, and automatically report location when polled by authorised person. When necessary, they can be attached to your teen like "house-arrest" bracelets, and your teens are unable to turn them off, or remove them. Teen benefit from having a cell phone, and parent benefits from knowing where teens are at all times.
-- senatorjam, Jun 12 2002

Is a PDA close enough? http://www.salon.co...ker_tech/index.html
tracking college students via GPS [Jeremi, Jun 12 2002, last modified Oct 17 2004]

HB: Kidnapping ankle bracelets http://www.halfbake...20ankle_20bracelets
Similar idea for monitoring children. [pottedstu, Jun 12 2002, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Cell Phone Emergency Locator http://www.halfbake...Emergency_20Locator
Sans GPS. [phoenix, Jun 12 2002, last modified Oct 17 2004]

GPS Panic Alarm http://www.halfbake...GPS_20Panic_20Alarm
Sans cell phone. [phoenix, Jun 12 2002, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Mobile Phone Theft Protector http://www.halfbake...20Theft_20Protector
Where [dag] proposes this idea in an annotation. [phoenix, Jun 12 2002, last modified Oct 17 2004]

FindABathroom.com http://www.halfbake...FindABathroom_2ecom
Where [bristolz] suggests the combination for a different reason. [phoenix, Jun 12 2002, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Cellular GPS Tracker http://www.halfbake...lar_20GPS_20Tracker
Exact same idea, different purpose [phoenix, Jun 12 2002, last modified Oct 17 2004]

ChildNet http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/ChildNet
Same intent, different technology. [phoenix, Jun 12 2002, last modified Oct 17 2004]

GPS to start working indoors http://www.semicond...tent/file_1023.html
12 Sep 03 | "A new software-based approach has been developed for GPS receivers, resulting in a dramatic increase in sensitivity, enabling indoor use." [bristolz, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

uLocate http://www.ulocate.com
Fully baked for $12.95 a month [asmithmd1, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Free GPS Tracker http://www.accutracking.com
Samilar technology, tracking Nextel phones. How can it make $$$!! [matrix, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

GPS phone http://www.itag.com
Track your gps phone with iTag.com [lparker3470, Aug 31 2009]

I have to say this is not a good idea, for a number of reasons. Firstly, teenagers are old enough to be trusted to tell you where they are going, without employing tracking devices. Also, if they do want to sneak off and do drugs or rob houses, they can simply leave their cellphones at home. Also, GPS does not work indoors, and can have problems in cities even out of doors.

The other half of this idea is the compulsory bracelet idea. A while ago, the sadly-missed user Susen posted an idea for 'Kidnapping ankle bracelets', which has the same idea of GPS devices attached to your children. You can read that for discussions of the problems with such a device.
-- pottedstu, Jun 12 2002


Big brother is watching again, and again, and again, and again...
-- StarChaser, Jun 13 2002


And even Big Brother has not seen fit to bring Susen back.
-- jurist, Jun 13 2002


Unfortunately.
-- StarChaser, Jun 13 2002


If the kids don't run up as big a phone bill because they'd rather not be tracked than talk more... or they really do want to be tracked sometimes and the tracking part could be switched on or off with the phone....

It's a nice option to have. Its abuse potential is in the hands of its users.
-- ThotMouser, Jun 14 2002


What happened to the good old days where you could let your teen just go out for a couple of hours and just hang out. The reason why everything has gone so bad is becuase of overly protective parents who wont let the teen do anything. so lets think, if you were in their position, would you follow everything to the T or sneak around! I am a 17 YR old who is carring a gpa of 3.78 and i have al the freedom in the world. if i wanted to go out and have sex i could do it with out my parents even knowing it. but i dont go out and do it. i am still a virgin. If you teach the kids morals when they are young then you shouldnt have any problems when they are a teenager. so if you dont trust them, its your fault for them doing whatever did or not did becuase you did not instill values when they were younger. stop trying to watch us 24/7. your working too hard!!!!
-- SR71BlkBrd86, Jan 14 2004


Aaah, the years go by. We should audit how many ideas have become baked
-- senatorjam, Aug 19 2011


// What happened to the good old days where you could let your teen just go out for a couple of hours and just hang out //

They ended, that's what happened. Two elements contributed to this. Firstly, our society has, for better and worse, become more permissive with each generation over the last 60 years, and as an indirect result of this, most parents have become overprotective. Secondly, societal insistence on the use of proper grammar and punctuation has slipped, leading today's teens to believe that since they aren't being reprimanded for dumbing down and bastardizing the English language, they can get away with anything and nobody will try to correct them.
-- Alterother, Aug 20 2011


Well said, [Alterother].
-- blissmiss, Aug 20 2011


I would be exaggerating if I said I was completely convinced that the erosion of grammar was up there in the top two.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 20 2011



random, halfbakery