by Ted Sherman

Created on: January 27, 2009

I believe the premise of the question of GPS use on children is subject to heavy debate. How can anyone with any common sense of right and wrong associate protecting your children with stalking? Stalking almost always applies to shadowy, nerdy characters who follow celebrities or, worse, those lurking criminals who could hurt your children. Parents who are concerned for their children's safety can never be called stalkers in any sense of the word.

Of course, the Global Positioning System, formerly used only on aircraft and military vehicles, has become very economical and is commonplace everywhere. It has revolutionized safety and communications on car trips, vacations, boating, mountain climbing, hiking and a thousand other activities. And certainly, for kids younger than high-school age, a GPS in some city mean streets could be considered an absolute necessity.

OK, so hooking up a kid with a GPS unit could be intrusive, frustrating and often considered unfair snooping by the child and all of his pals. So what! Parents' primary responsibility is for the safety of their children, and they certainly have the right to apply every means they can to succeed.

Long before the era of the GPS, I joined the Navy at age 17. Because of the sudden freedom of being away from my parents control, and wearing a uniform in wartime, I did everything wrong a teenager can do, including too much drinking and other youthful excesses. Fortunately, I survived until I had learned some common sense and moderation. If the GPS had been available to my parents at the time, and they had hooked it up on me, maybe I would have saved us all a lot of unncessary grief.

The GPS can serve as a deterrant, an ever-present reminder to the child that bad and dangerous behavior will not be tolerated. That intrusive little box can cool growing children's temptations to cross the line into dangerous behavior, whether on the road and in other potentially bad situations. Maybe if put to parents in terms whether or not to use a GPS on a reluctant child: would you rather have your child frustrated or dead?

Of course, this kind of close scrutiny should be a temporary measure. As the child gets to be 16 and 17 and has shown intelligent responsibility on the road and elsewhere where danger is possible, maybe then parents can loosen the electronic umbilical cord a bit. Then they can remore it at certain times, and eventually end GPS snooping entirely.

Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.