[okso]

Does anyone else feel uneasy about the idea of children having to curb their behavior because they know they're being constantly monitored by their parents?

This product concerns me not only due to corporate advertising surveillance but also parental spying.

[pavel_lishin]

Flip that around.

My child has more freedom now, because I can let her walk further from home, unsupervised, to see if a friend can play - because she can immediately text me and let me know she's staying at the friend's house for the next few hours. She no longer has to wait for me to be ready to walk with her.

She can text me if she wants to be picked up from aftercare early. Or if she wants to stay later. Or if she wants to make plans for afterwards with a friend.

I don't mean to dismiss your concerns, they're valid. But this question also varies hugely with age. It would feel very odd tracking every step of my child's life if they were 16; it's different if they're 8.

[pohuing]

I simply called using the landline back in the day, but I grew up in a small village in Germany where roaming the fields unsupervised was the norm.

[throwaway2037]

Thank you to share. My experience (different countries) was similar to yours.

Do you know anyone who grew up in a big city in the same era? I do. They didn't experience the same type of freedoms. Their parents were much more concerned about crime/kidnapping/"the boogey man".

[yurishimo]

Anecdotally, where I live in a more rural area now, it's common to see kids out riding bikes during the day. Contrast that, I work in the city and unless it's right after when school lets out, I don't see nearly as many kids just riding around. Perhaps it's because they really stay inside the neighborhood or culdasac, but the city is small enough and well connected (Netherlands) with bike infrastructure, that I would expect to see more kids around.

Perhaps this is also influenced by the number of expats in the larger cities and those people are unsure of the safety/normalcy aspect and tend to lean towards caution? I'd be interested to see some data!

[throwaway2037]

    > the number of expats in the larger cities

I cannot imagine it is more than 5% percent outside Europe.

[ajsnigrutin]

I grew up in a socialist apartment block neighborhood with more apartment blocks around and more even further.

You came home from school, watched tv, did whatever, then around three, parents would start coming home, so we (the kids) went out, you knew approximately when dinner would be ready to go home and eat, and that was it. The playgrounds, benches, basketball courts, etc., where full of kids and noone really cared. Sometimes when someone was needed at home, a mom would yell his name through the window, and someone heard it and told someone else, and than that third person knew where that kid was and told him that his mom is looking for him, and the kid went home (usually to eat, or if some relative came to visit).

[ksenzee]

Sure, I did too, or using a pay phone. There are precious few pay phones and landlines anymore.

[umanwizard]

I don’t know anyone in the U.S. who still has a landline.

[pohuing]

Germany showing its incredible infrastructure again then. But then giving the kids a cell phone really is a necessity huh. Can't even call parents at work if they're back from school or on break and something happens.

[gpm]

You're talking about giving the kid the ability to send messages to their parents - I don't think anyone thinks that's a bad thing.

The person you're responding to is talking about the location "sharing" feature, where the watch constantly reports the kids location to their parents without the kid doing anything.

[bitshiftfaced]

From skimming the page, it looks like it mainly just lets you know their location. Were there other more invasive features than that? Parents keeping tabs on where their kids are and who they're with is associated with positive outcomes like reduced drug use risks.

[michaelt]

When I was young (several decades ago now, admittedly) parents couldn't track our locations. We largely turned out fine.

To me, someone who wants to track their kid's location 24/7 in real time sounds rather anxious - unless their kid has a history of drug abuse.

[jahewson]

Well, my parents could track my location by just asking other people in our village where I was, but that’s not quite the same.

[exitb]

I suspect that parents might be more permissive if they have access to location and means of communication.

[quaintdev]

And then when they finally break free they don't have any feedback mechanism that they had since childhood. This can go both ways. They might turn out to be model citizen or your worst nightmare.

People raised children for 1000s of years without any technology. I bet we can do that too.

[guilhas]

I don't disagree, but we didn't had a choice and now we have. How much guilt is a parent going to have in, the unlikely situation, that something unfortunate happens and that it could have been prevented by this device?

[philomath_mn]

Possibly -- but we're looking at a smartwatch to give our 7 y.o. _more_ freedom. If he has a way to call home and we can check on his location, I'm much more likely to set him loose in the neighborhood.

Something for us to think about, though.

[umanwizard]

What stops you from giving him freedom even without a smartphone?

[ksenzee]

In the US, the biggest danger to free-range kids is nosy neighbors, who are convinced kids out wandering alone are in danger of… something! Kidnapping? Sex trafficking? Darned if I know. But it’s a huge problem to those of us who want our kids to be free to walk to the corner store. My kid had a woman call the police on him at age 7, in a safe suburban neighborhood, when she wasn’t satisfied with his answers about why he was out alone. Having a phone would have helped: he could have called me right then. (As it is, he ran away before they got there, and I still chuckle wondering what the cops thought about the whole thing.)

[philomath_mn]

I am pretty comfortable with him moving around w/o a cell device but it would give my wife peace of mind (which is fair). Plus the convenience of calling him home without driving around.

[throwaway2037]

    > People raised children for 1000s of years without any technology. I bet we can do that too.

I love these comments. So, no vaccines for you and your kids, right?

[4ggr0]

> So, no vaccines for you and your kids, right?

Depending on the person, the answer you expect might not be the actual answer you get...

[throwaway2037]

Correct me if wrong, but the anti-vaxxer movement is limited to Americans. I never once heard any other nationality talk about it, except to make fun of loonies from the US. In many highly developed countries, you cannot go to public schools without evidence of many vaccines.