Location tracking is common with pets. Owners put tracking chips in their pets after getting them to be able to locate them if they were to run away or get let out accidently. There have been debates about putting these location devices in young children. Like any debate, there are pros and cons to using locators in young children. Young children are a tendency to wonder. Whether they are in the park, a store or an airport with their parents, they are always tempted to go off on their own. If they see something that catches their eye, they naturally gravitate towards it. Even though parents tell their children to stay close or not to wonder too far, some children do. If they wonder far enough where the parent cannot see them, having a tracking device will ease the feeling of losing a child. Not only are children wondering away, but there are some people in this world that kidnap young children. This is something that happens more often than it should. If it happened to a child, their parent could pull up the tracking information and find the location where their child is. On the other hand, if tracking devices are used on children, parents may be more lenient with their children when it comes to how far they can wonder. If parents know there is a location device with their child at all times, they may give the child more freedom because they have that sense of security knowing they can track them at any given time. In my opinion, the tracking device should not cause parents to give their four year old more freedom or pay less attention to them. They still need to do their jobs as parents and watch them at all times. Personally, I feel that having a tracking device on your young child is beneficial for security reason, but it should not take the place of physically watching over them. As for tracking forgetful elders or elders who have Alzheimer’s, I feel this could be beneficial. My grandmother has Alzheimer’s and she is starting to forget things more frequently. My mother and my aunts are starting to worry because she still has her license and a car and drives herself around. We fear that she will end up somewhere and forget where she is and how she got there. With her being from an older generation, she does not own a cell phone to contact anyone if this were to happen. The GPS shoes or other devices that have GPS's in them, I fell, is a good idea for some elders that are in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s.
Prepaid cells phones are purchased for many different reasons. Some people may not be able to afford expensive phones and contracts what many carriers require now. Contracts are binding and paying for data usage and calls and texts can add up. Those who do not make enough money to pay their bills and pay for a family of fours’ cellphone bills could the resort to prepaid phones. This also goes for teenagers and young adults that pay for their own phones and bills. Another example of buying prepaid cell phones is convenience. Say if someone were to drop their phone and the screen shattered and they had to wait two weeks for the insurance company to review the accident and get back to them, the person could go down to the store and buy a prepaid phone to have with them in case of an emergency while waiting for the insurance company. Yes, some criminal’s acquire prepaid cell phones to keep the law enforcers from bugging their phone calls, but I do not believe that prepaid cell phones should be banned. There are people out there that need to use these phones in order to save money and have a cell phone all together.
