Another feature under discussion that this article doesn't talk about is a scenario where chip readers would be installed in " dangerous areas" of the city so that if the children go near, a warning message is sent to their parent's mobile phones. To be fair, this is in the context of a culture where 1st graders generally go to school by themselves on foot or by public transportation - that's 5 year olds.

Tech like this always has utopian and distopian aspects. I hope it can make the world safer, I hope it helps these kids and their parents, but human tracking always invokes distopian visions of future police states.

The zone warnings sound great, for young children, but what about teens? I bet you teen angst would take on a whole new facade given the restraints of parental tracking.

Scott, you better than any of us, I imagine, understand the fear and trepidation commonly stirred by new tech. What can we do but forge forward an hope that good prevails.

Hrmmm...taking care of children that young can't be an easy task, regardless of a chip or not. I would agree that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages, but hope that the benefits don't become a crutch for parenting. IE, "My kid is safe because of the chip, so I don't have to keep track of them myself as much as I used to." There again, the cultural differences are night and day, so it's hard to comment from this side of the fence. I wouldn't be opposed to it here in the states, but definitely wouldn't want it to start a trend of neglect. Too many parents these days, especially in this country, ignore their children (more in later stages in life) and use all sorts of excuses to avoid parenting.

I'm amazed that 5 and 6 year olds walk or take public transportation by themselves to and from school. That's definitely something to consider when safety issues arise. I have much to learn about other parts of this world...

in related news, check the wherify stuff (GPS trackers for children) here:

http://www.wherifywireless.com/corp_home.htm

Recenlty, I've been thinking about the future of Augmented Reality and it's effect on our society.

Tracking by the others are inevitable. Once people want to take the benefit from certain technology, they have to pay their rights and privacy too. Think about TV, internet, human's technology are evolving. We can't stop RFID and all these new technology. Everybody I know feel it's scary to use RFID. But I believe we can't stop using it. The things we could do is to get used to it.

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