I was having a discussion with some friends the other day about how when I was a kid (lets say 7-11) I used to be out all day playing and roaming around, and then we were comparing it to today, although CH is clearly much safer than many countries in this regard.
One of my friends was saying that they would worry about losing sight of their kids or not being there if anything happens etc and I said I had seen that you can get GPS tags nowadays so you can keep track of your kids location by phone. She said that would be practical, but then said "but wouldn't it be intrusive"?
I am not a parent but for me it's not at intrusive when used responsibly and if a kid has to sacrifice using one to be allowed to get some freedom then I would be all for it. I would likely set up some kind of geofencing thing, or to get an alert is certain speeds were reached, but other than that would probably just check it at times when it was getting close to when I had told them to be home.
What are your thoughts on this... do you or would you or wouldn't you?
I can see them being incredibly useful when skiing with kids.
Often, despite clear instructions, they decide to do their own thing.
If there's a fork in the path and they go one way and you the other - they could be on a lift before you've dragged yourself 100 metres back up your slope to the fork and down their slope.
One of my new year resolutions is I'm writing in a paper for wife where I'm going while she's working. This winter, it's been more than once that I have not seen anyone in the forests around home when running or riding the bike. It's fun to jump that ramp, but if I cannot even walk anymore and there's no one around? It's cold outside and hopefully there's at least 3G signal and wife finds the note.
Well, that's me. I guess it all depends on the kid. I was a nerdy child that walked to the pool for the swimming class and returned straight home to eat and read books. The outdoor thing kicked off quite late. But, other kids wander more. If the kid is always with friends, I wouldn't worry. But if the kid tends to explore the world alone...the GPS device is not a bad idea.
If the kid it's a wanderer, tell him/her it's an adult thing to do. Back in my mountain climbing days we rented a tracking device from SPOT to tell other mountaineering friends if we were safe or not. The little thingy had a GPS emitter that sends the position every 10 min, and satellite link with two buttons: OK & HELP!!!.
Having lived in countries outside of Switzerland there is a built in worry about kids, on their own, on the streets. We bought out daughter (6 years) a device which is a, watch, phone and comes with an app where we can see where she is. We can call her and she can call only numbers that we have included in the app. (Mum, dad, nanny, police etc)
It also has an SOS function that sends us a notification and her location.
All this is probably not necessary, but does provide us some peace of mind.
The simple answer is I would and I did . This was specifically in the context of very young kids walking to kindergarten/School and peace of mind of an anxious parent. Now that my kids are older the devices have been retired.
It's easier to just provide sources to support your statements, because I am not sure if you actually read that article or not (I doubt it), but Germany only banned specific kinds of smartwatches that allow you to listen to audio from the kids side, as parents were using them to snoop on teachers. So to say "Germany banned the sale of smartwatches to children" is about as vague and lacking in context as it gets.