Cellphones can play Big Brother
Some parents are wary of being overly intrusive if they sign on for child-monitoring services now offered by wireless firms.

Matt Richtel / The New York Times | May 8 2006

Kevin Reynolds, a real estate appraiser and father of two, is confronting a quandary: Should he put his daughters under electronic surveillance? It's a question more parents will face in the next months, thanks to new technology that lets them use cellphones to monitor their children's location.

Next month, Verizon Wireless plans to introduce a child-monitoring service, joining Sprint Nextel and Disney Mobile, which started similar services this spring. Cingular is working on the concept, too.

The systems track cellphones by satellite, allowing parents to look on the Internet to make sure their children arrived safely, say, at school or at a friend's house.

"If you don't do it and something happens to your kids, how would you feel?" said Reynolds, 49, contemplating giving such phones to his daughters, ages 4 and 8. But he is also wary of being overly intrusive.

"It's Big Brother on a kid's level," he said. "What's it like to live in a world where everybody has a device that tracks where we are?"

We may soon find out. Several new programs for consumers use cellphones to tell us - and our parents and employers, not to mention advertisers - where we are, how fast we're moving, what direction we're moving in and how close we happen to be to restaurants, movie theaters, banks and other businesses.

Soon our cellphones will locate, record and even herald us with digital precision: "You are here." These location-based services take advantage of technology built into dozens of the newest phones. It can instantaneously identify a phone's location by using satellites and the Global Positioning System, or by determining the location of the cell tower connected to the phone.
Sensitive to accusations of fear- mongering, cellular carriers argue that they are supplying parents with "peace of mind." Verizon Wireless, which plans to introduce its $9.99 monthly service, called Chaperone, in June, said it tried to balance privacy and safety concerns, discussing its plans with law enforcement officials, educators and missing-children advocates.

Concerns about the services have not stopped Verizon from plunging ahead. The company aims to take the concept beyond spot-checks on a child's whereabouts. For $19.99, parents can program a child's phone with geographic boundaries (around a school, say). When a child leaves the area, the parent will get a text message indicating the perimeter has been breached.

Chaperone and its geo-fencing service could be good for the phone companies' sales. Industry analysts say the companies, whose rapid growth has begun to taper off as American society has reached cellphone saturation, are looking for new revenue sources.

Location-based services - from child monitors to car navigation systems - are a hot opportunity, the analysts say.

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