Have you used any mobile location system for your child?

Have anyone of you used a mobile location system?
In case you have done it, did U tell your kid that is for his/her own safety, or have you hide it?

I've installed a tracking system called 'DondeEsta' to my daugther - 7 y.o. - and told her that is for her own safety, she agreed on having it!  

What do you think about those kind of systems? Is it too much control?

[30something13]

on a 7 year old?? I don't hink it is needed as she should not be anywhere you or an other adult is at that age! It is not like she is big enought to walk around the neighborhood! Why would you even think to put it on her? I think that a tracking system on a teenagers car maybe but ob their person is a little to much. You do not need kids to laugh at her nor make her pariniod! She will also think you do not trust her and think she could go where ever cuz you would know where she was. She may not ask you to leave!

I have 6 kids and have lived in the city and in rural areas and that is just too young! I guess if you live in NY or a crowded place and where at the park with lots of kids with you, other then that you should trust yourself more and other adults watching your child, if you do not trust the other adults she should not be with them fo rany reason.

[AnnieBrooke]

It would seem that either the place she lives is safe enough that she would not need this, or it is so dangerous she should not be alone, especially at age 7.

However, maybe things are different where you live, and also, it sounds by your question (of whether this is too much "control") like you might be using it largely to know what friends she spends time with, etc., rather than being really concerned about her safety per se.  If this is true, I tend to come down on the side of not letting my child have free computer access to any website he feels like looking at, at age 7, but would be more trusting of how he spends his playtime and wouldn't make him wear a monitor.  

Cultures vary as to how much a parent should and does trust a child to only associate with approved friends, etc.  Where I live, there wouldn't be a lot of unsupervised activity for a 7-year-old, so a monitor would be redundant to the eye of a parent or an aunt or babysitter.  

All that said, I would be worried about scaring a 7-year-old half to death about the mere act of walking down the street, if I put a monitor on her and told her it was for her own safety.

[amandamae1126]

If you are using it for control purposes, maybe it's not such a good idea. Seven year olds can't really get in that much trouble. However, I do weep when I see these small children that have been abducted. In those situations, I bet the parents wish they had some tracking device on their kids. I don't think we should be judging so harshly like there is NO reason to use this type of product. Personally, I probably wouldn't use it on my small child all the time but it doesn't mean that others do not have good reasons. Do you know how easy it is to snag a young child from say the mall or park...you see it happening all the time.

I think this is more of a question that each parent has to consider and make a decision as a family.