Is there an open sources solution for GPS tracking devices that size? Because I feel like we need something to counteract people willing to trust Apple to track people and things everywhere.
If you need to spy on your kids to keep tabs on them, you’re a shitty parent. You should be able to discuss enabling Find My (assuming they have an iPhone) on their phone and why that’s required (by you) openly.
Too many inept people have children. That’s a large part of why society is in such decline.
Hey asshole, special needs kids are big and strong and smart enough to get themselves out in the world and need ways to get to them to keep them safe. There are plenty of reasonable reasons for tracking tech for your kid that aren’t helicopter parenting.
When the kids find the “hidden” compartments immediately and swap their tags around.
“It says his left shoe is supposed to be here, but all I see is his right shoe! How is this possible!?”
Parent: “Why does Billy keep going to his friend’s house in the other county?”
be kid
find this in your shoe
get idea
catch seagull
tie airtag to its foot.
go see mom having a fit
The Simpsons already did it.
I’m not concerned with tracking where my kids are with these, but tracking their shoes sounds kinda useful. Average daily conversation in my house:
"Where are you shoes?" "I don't know?" "You were just in the middle of putting them on!?!!" "Yeah but... I can't find them now." "How? You had them in your hands?!?" "That was, um, before I got distracted." "*sigh* Let's go try and find them."Are your kids smoking weed?
Nope, kids are just like this
Kids have a distinct advantage in this ongoing consumer tech war between parents and kids.
I don’t use TikTok, but I’d be pretty surprised if this wasn’t already starting to trend there, along with ideas for where to put the airtags to fool parents.
Maybe just… talk to your kids?
A lot of people don’t know this, but you can put your weed in there.
ah yes the old “hide your weed in the back of your PS2/under your Gamecube” method.
RIP expansion bays
I would rather not
showing my age but when I was a kid during the summer or on weekends I’d be out of the house all day and just where ever in my town. My parents didn’t care as long as I was either home for dinner or by the time the street lights came on. and if I wasn’t home for dinner I had to find a phone and call not because my parents would be worried but so they either wouldn’t have to cook as much or set out a plate for me.
Glad you’re still alive!
“Surveillance-minded” (hereafter, “Helicopter”) parents were almost certainly already doing that.
It just required a sharp knife and a tube of contact adhesive previously.
I was under the impression this is the main selling point of AirTags. Is there a real market for tracking lost luggage? I see AirTags being sold in every Kid’s store around here.
My dog has one on her collar. She got lost once, after chasing a squirrel, so it was a no brainer. The cool thing is that you can make it go off, by pressing a button, and train the dog to come to you when it chirps. I hope I never need to use it in an emergency, but it’s good to know I’m prepared.
That’s a great recall cue.
I have one in a very well hidden pocket in my backpack. Because it’s my gig bag, and goes with me when I’m working in the field. If I were just leaving it under my desk all day, I wouldn’t bother. But since it often ends up sitting in the corner of a random room while I run around a building, it has an AirTag buried in it.
Some shoes even already had compartments in them and came with a toy car that fit in there
Just give them a phone. Then at least they get something they want with it, instead of ugly shoes.
Young children should absolutely not have a phone, unless I suppose it’s completely locked down to chat apps and the tracking I suppose…
My little sister has a phone I set up for her. It has no internet browser, requires permission to download apps, no voicemail, blocks unknown callers, and turns off at 9pm with the exception of contacting family or emergency services.
Phones can be safe for kids if parent just put in the time to learn about parental safety systems and implement them.
More and more governments issue warning about the effects of screens on baby, toddler, and child brain development. The age the Netherlands puts forward now is 14 to have a smartphone, and no screens or very limited until 3 years of age.
How is it different than a TV screen? That was my brainrot when I was growing up.
They issue is less the screen than it is the lack of long-form entertainment. Kids paying attention to an hour and a half movie plot on the screen isn’t the same problem as scrolling through endless 30 second videos or accessing social media.
The TV is also bad, but smartphones are literally slot machines in the child’s pocket that keep giving them dopamine hits. It’s many times worse for the brain.
There are parental controls etc. But the nature of the device is addictive with its notifications and the likes.
Individually targeted and psychologically-optimized content.
Learn to use the tools to protect your kids. iPhones and Android can absolutely be locked down for children. Or just get an apple watch or flip phone. All better than a fucking airtag.
My kids got an apple watch, locked down during school hours, etc.
Better for what purpose? If you’re on holiday in a busy, foreign city, an AirTag for location tracking is much cheaper than this other options.
AirTags rely on being able to piggyback off of other iPhones to report their location. They are not a self-contained device, merely an appliance. If you give your kid a smartwatch with cellular or a full-fledged phone, you can track where they are but also they have the ability to contact you/be contacted if need be. Sure, there are drawbacks to such choices, but that is what being well-informed as a parent is all about.
This reminds me of an episode of Black Mirror that I can’t remember the name of.
I’m guessing Arkangel
Yes! You’re the best!
The peak of evolved kids shoes are those with wheels on the heels (“Heelys”)
Bonus points if they had the hard plastic instep so you could grind with them like Soaps.
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Can you register a random AirTag?
I’m pretty sure you can’t track them through the network. You can’t say “track this air tag wherever it goes”.
But you could use a device to track the signal the air tag emits as long as you’re in range.
Doesn’t the AirTag’s emitted ID cycle and change?
I don’t know myself, but it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to track the change. Just look at when tracker abc disappears and when tracker xyz takes its place. Unless you’re in an area with lots of trackers, it wouldn’t be too difficult to weed out the target tracker.
If not, then cool, your parents can give that info to your creepy uncle Steve. He’s just gonna pick you up from school one day. Better hope he doesn’t bring his white van.
“Can”? Were they physically unable to before?
It is likely more that they are designed to have AirTags with special compartments.
As if kids won’t suss that out in two heartbeats.
Depends on their age. I have young kids and love in the inner city. These would be handy but you’d need it in every shoe or it’s pointless.
I mean, nice that you have kids. But why are you bringing your mistress who lives downtown into this? :D
“surveillance-minded parents”… Are they trying to put a negative spin on it?
Knowing where your underage kid is is a must these days. Lots of crazy people out there.
Lots of crazy people out there.
Yeah. Your surveillance-minded family members.
uh, statistically there are less crazy mfs than there were 30 years ago. we just weren’t hyper connected. so yes, I would hope they’re putting a negative spin on it. Fuck sake, my sister wouldn’t let her 16 year old boys walk to the end of the cul-de-sac for fear of them being kidnapped. This shit is so god-damned stupid.
wtf at 16 I was doing vacation alone with my then girlfriend in another country were we travelled to by train lol
My kid is 8. I like to let him roam free in the neighborhood, but I also want to be sure I can keep track of him, or locate him if he disappears. I don’t see how this is a bad thing.
Just because your sister is hyper vigilant, doesn’t mean having the capacity to track your children is wrong. People have different lives and live in different places. Just because this tool has no value to you doesn’t mean it is wrong.
These days they have phones on them. Imagine raising a kid in the 90s or earlier.
Phones can be taken. It’s less improbable to the shoes to be taken.
I’m saying my mom let me go outside and play with friends when there weren’t even phones you could just put in your pocket and be available. Whoever’s yard you were hanging out at, their parents said it was dinner time and that’s how you knew to go home too.
Ya gotta have SOME level of trust for your kids, otherwise you’ll never have a healthy relationship with them.
I think you’re one of those crazy people. Honestly, no one with that level of control obsession should be allowed to have children.
You’re thinking wrong.
You guys are confusing safety with surveillance because of the obvious clickbaity title of the article.
Having the option to know where your children are is not the same as controlling them. Parent intent matters and any tool can be abused, which doesn’t mean the tool is wrong.
You’re teaching your children to accept highly invasive surveillance. And for what? Just so you can surrender to a moral panic about stranger danger, when actual rates of childhood abduction and abuse are at historic lows. You’re failing to properly raise citizens of a healthy democratic society. Instead, you’re raising children to accept living in an authoritarian society. If kids grow up with their own parents spying on them, why would they ever think the government and corporations spying on them is wrong? You surrendered the freedom of your own children, just to give in to your own irrational insecurities. But you tell yourself that your case is different, that you’re violating their privacy for their own good. This is exactly what every authoritarian government tells their citizens. It’s for your own good; that’s what they always say. You are failing to teach your children to have the values necessary to be citizens in a healthy democracy.
The road to Hell is paved with “for the children.”
They’re AirTags in shoes, dude. Kids aren’t learning to submit to authoritarians because of Sketchers, they’re just finding their shoes faster.
And that’s what the proles told each other about telescreens.
“It’s just a telescreen dood, just chill.”
