Considering putting an Apple Air Tag on kid’s backpack

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an incredibly tech-uneducated question but would it be harmful to a child to be exposed to the Bluetooth whatevers all day? I don’t know if Bluetooth radio waves have health effects.

Good grief

Yes, it's not great for the kid's health.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the dangers of doing this? Can other people track her somehow if I do it?

But what are the benefits of sticking a tracking device on your child? Do you have reason to think your child is not going to school each day? I’m genuinely curious why people are considering it.

I don’t get this. If your child doesn’t show up to school, you will get a text, email and robo call. It will happen if they are sick and you forget to fill out the absent form.

When they are older and if they are late to class, the same thing happens if they are late to class and the teacher forgets to change the absent to tardy. We got this a lot last year foe my middle schooler.

You don’t need a tracking device to see if then got to school. If you are worried about abductions and want to track them you should really get help for anxiety instead.

[Anonymous]

My friend has her kids wear smart watches so she can track where her xhusband takes them because she believes as their mom she should know where her kids are at all times.

[Anonymous]

My kids are in HS and every parent I know has their phone set up to track their kids’ phones. I even set my kids’ phones to track me (mostly so I’d stop getting “where are you?” calls when I was en route to pick them up). I even know college parents who do this.

So, I don’t think OP’s idea is so shocking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friend has her kids wear smart watches so she can track where her xhusband takes them because she believes as their mom she should know where her kids are at all times.

Don't judge until you're in her shoes. My X had/has a bad habit of just leaving our child somewhere when he gets pissed off. It's the main reason I have him carry a phone with him when he is with his father.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an incredibly tech-uneducated question but would it be harmful to a child to be exposed to the Bluetooth whatevers all day? I don’t know if Bluetooth radio waves have health effects.

Good grief

Yes, it's not great for the kid's health.

Just have them wear aluminum hats. it's fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is an incredibly tech-uneducated question but would it be harmful to a child to be exposed to the Bluetooth whatevers all day? I don’t know if Bluetooth radio waves have health effects.

Yes, research shows that the bluetooth waves can go in the kids' brains and scramble the signals. But you can remedy this with a portable fan clipped to their bookbag strap. It blows the bluetooth waves away from their body

[Anonymous]

Our world is mostly safe. We are unfortunately bombarded with horrible stories that can make us paranoid parents and I suspect does more harm in insidious ways. For example by undermining public schools and spontaneous play and hindering independence. Once you give into this type of anxiety it feels harmless but it actually makes these anxious tendencies stronger.

An alternative: Trust your kids and empower them. For my 5 yo we talk about: what could you do if you found yourself locked out of the house? He came up with (some prompting): I could try the back door, I could go next door to Ms. Joyce’s house, I could try Mary’s house up the street. He knows my cell number and knows how to ask someone to call it. He knows to look for a policeman or an employee if he’s lost elsewhere. he knows our address. Give them tools to navigate a (mostly) safe world. He really relishes this and it bolstered his confidence - he reminds me about it often even though we’ve never had to test it.

If you do feel the need go that route I would get the kids phone watch instead, make sure they learn how to use it to call and text people if needed, know when mom is checking on them, and not simply be passively monitored.

[Anonymous]

We do this because the kids have a tendency to leave their backpacks places. Has come in handy when we weren't sure if it was left at school, practice, math, etc. But clip it on securely. We did have one fall out and show up at another kid's house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are in HS and every parent I know has their phone set up to track their kids’ phones. I even set my kids’ phones to track me (mostly so I’d stop getting “where are you?” calls when I was en route to pick them up). I even know college parents who do this.

So, I don’t think OP’s idea is so shocking.

But OP is talking about young elementary kid who is not going off to the mall with their friends like your HS aged kid. If OP is worried about her kid wandering away or not able to walk to/from school by themselves that's a different issue and worth tracker. But then OP would be better off picking/dropping their child and not anxiously checking on the tracker.

[Anonymous]

People these days keep ranting about sex trafficking like it's the Dark Ages and people are just getting nabbed when out and about. Not sure where this came from but now everyone gives you side eye if you let your kid run around without supervision and they put trackers on their own kids.

[Anonymous]

We put one on our 3rd grader's backpack. The tracking doesn't update as quickly as an iphone. You can tell the general area, but you couldn't tell that the school bus was 2 stops away for example. We got him an apple watch with cellular service later that year and it works great both for tracking and also if you need to communicate that basketball has been cancelled, change school departure plan, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our world is mostly safe. We are unfortunately bombarded with horrible stories that can make us paranoid parents and I suspect does more harm in insidious ways. For example by undermining public schools and spontaneous play and hindering independence. Once you give into this type of anxiety it feels harmless but it actually makes these anxious tendencies stronger.

An alternative: Trust your kids and empower them. For my 5 yo we talk about: what could you do if you found yourself locked out of the house? He came up with (some prompting): I could try the back door, I could go next door to Ms. Joyce’s house, I could try Mary’s house up the street. He knows my cell number and knows how to ask someone to call it. He knows to look for a policeman or an employee if he’s lost elsewhere. he knows our address. Give them tools to navigate a (mostly) safe world. He really relishes this and it bolstered his confidence - he reminds me about it often even though we’ve never had to test it.

If you do feel the need go that route I would get the kids phone watch instead, make sure they learn how to use it to call and text people if needed, know when mom is checking on them, and not simply be passively monitored.

Just so you know—a five year old can repeat the “plan” back to you, but, no letter how much you practice and discuss, it’s unlikely he would remain calm and enough to execute that plan.

Also, you should teach kids to approach a women. Women are more likely to help a child and less likely to be creeps. It can be hard to find police anywhere and hard for a kid to properly identify a uniform.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the dangers of doing this? Can other people track her somehow if I do it?

But what are the benefits of sticking a tracking device on your child? Do you have reason to think your child is not going to school each day? I’m genuinely curious why people are considering it.

For me, I'd worry about school bus trips. My kid took the school bus to an aftercare. While I trust the aftercare enough to let my kid go there, I do worry about scenarios such as the kid missing a stop, getting on the wrong bus for some reason. I did read on the bus delay notice board of our school district that some buses were late because there was a kid on the wrong bus, so this kind of thing happens.