Hasta La Ideas

For paranoid parents everywhere, GPS trackers for kids that can trace your little darlings’ every move

Xact Trax is one of several companies showing personal GPS tracking devices here at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. While many of the others are focussed on outdoorsy types, it has identified a possible new market for the devices, however – worried parents

Xact Trax had three prototypes aimed at kids on their stand: the Sparki, Spotti and Robuddi. Actually, all three are just different skins for the same basic device, shown below.

Pin one on your kid’s backpack and, via PC or phone, you can track their movements, providing, supposedly, worried parents with some piece of mind. If the cunning tot decides to dump the device, the parent will be alerted (it’ll sense a lack of movement, although I guess that might happen if they leave their bag on the floor anyway). And if junior decides he/she has had enough of the kind of surveillance that would have made the Stasi blush and switches the damned thing off, mum or dad can over-ride the device and switch it back on. And there are even applications for older kids – you can place one in a car to track whether or not your loved one is driving too fast.

As yet, though, there’s no function to detect crafty fags or monitor Bacardi Breezer intake