Taser's Kid-Monitoring Phones Guaranteed to Kill Childhood Nostalgia

At this year's CES, Taser International introduced its new Protector Family Safety Program, a line of products aimed at helping helicopter parents maintain constant surveillance of their kids' online activity. Taser's products allow parents to not only see what texts or e-mails their kids may exchange, but to actually listen in on their conversations, too. The package comes with software that can automatically intercept any call, text, or e-mail sent to a kid's phone, and re-route it directly to a parent's mobile. Once the call pops up on Mr. Snoop's phone, he can then decide to send it on to little Jimmy, block it, listen in on the conversation, or even record the call. Mom and Dad can, of course, customize the filter as they see fit, so as to allow un-tapped calls from friends on their "favorites" list, while concentrating on those ne'er-do-wells Sally's been seeing.

Needless to say, the program has been met with controversy, and we can understand why. If tracking your kid with GPS products makes you less of a daddy and more of a Big Brother, listening in on their conversations makes you an even Bigger Brother. Granted, it's not entirely surreptitious; a kid will always know when he or she's being tracked. But that doesn't do a whole lot to change the generally worrisome ethos of hyper-surveillance (and parental paranoia) that Taser's line perpetuates. Sure, the Internet's a big, scary place, and there are justifiable reasons that a parent should be worried (cyber bullying, sexting, online predators, etc.). Still, we're not sure these outlier cases necessarily justify turning your kid's everyday existence into an episode of 'The Real World.'

Perhaps a large part of our uneasiness with the idea, though, is due to the Taser name behind it. Fair or not, there's just something a bit unsettling about a child safety product coming from a company that made its name by turning criminals into Tesla coils. Moreover, it appears the company has adopted the same sort of pragmatic mentality with this product: the "there's a problem, let's zap it," blanket approach that ignores the nuanced, psychological ramifications it could have on a kid. Not all kids are criminals, but it kind of seems like Taser's product treats them as such. [From: CNET News]

Tags: kids, parents, privacy, safety, taser, top