The Rise of the Electronic Leash

When I was in journalism school back in 1999, I wrote a piece for a daily newspaper about teens and cell phones where some teens referred to cell phones as "electronic leashes" because parents were using cell phones to keep better tabs on them. It's almost six years later, and this trend of monitoring kids electronically has continued to grow (as have companies creating new products to help parents in their cause). We now have GPS tracking in phones and cars as well as RFID (radio frequency identification tags), etc. to track kids' every movement.

Salon.com (subscription or daypass required) has a great piece called "Big Mother is Watching" about the rise of these technologies and use of them by parents even though violent crime rates have steadily dropped since the 1970s.

The question is where do you draw the line? Part of being a teenager is about building trust and helping teens go from dependent to independent. How does this technology help or hurt this process? I'm actually not sure. But just as you wouldn't put a dog leash on a small child (although some parents do), I would think the idea of chipping them or tracking them from command central might feel a bit off as well. I also blame the media for fueling a level of fear that is completely out of whack with reality. If I see another headline screaming out about all the predators just waiting to track down teens from their blogs, I'm going to scream. Yes there are predators, but there hasn't been one case that anyone can point to where a teen was tracked down and hurt solely on the basis of what they posted on a Xanga or Live Journal site.

In a separate but related article, a single mom of two recently wrote an Op-Ed for the Christian Science Monitor about the positives the Web has to offer kids and teens. She has some pretty intense rules about how her kids can use the Web (she has access to her daughter's Xanga), but at least her approach seems a little less "Big Mothery."

And finally, MediaWeek published a story today on what I think parents should really be concerned about — online advergames and marketing to kids (not teens) online. McDonalds has now been integrated into NeoPets and TurboNick will launch with streaming ads. Marketers are feeling less inhibited about (although still obeying) the COPA laws. I echo the detractors' views somewhat here because I also think young children don't get the difference between content and advertising. Maybe instead of thinking about how to put RFID chips in kids' PJs, parents should begin teaching media literacy so younger children can tell the difference between an ad and their favorite cartoon characters.

Related:

Seth's Car for Control Freak Parents

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