The proposal to implant computer tracking chips into young
children proposes various possible privacy issues. If a child where to be
planted with a tracking chip, their location and information could potentially
be accessed by predators and kidnappers, increasing their safety risk immensely.
Hacking is a growing privacy issue in today’s technology, so the potential risk of a
predator hacking the chip information could be very probable. The chip also
imposes the question of, does this cause infringement on a child’s personal
privacy rights? Although this may not directly apply to young children under
the age of five, teenagers may feel a sense of violation from their parents or
guardians. This proposes the question of, what age is appropriate to deactivate
the tracking device and who legislates this? Such questions, risks, and privacy
rights cause a great deal of conflict and disagreement among people and their
children, so I feel the risks and conflict outweigh the benefits by a long shot.
If
Congress were to require ID chips in young children, I would not support it. I
feel such chips will eventually cause more harm than good, giving child
predators and kidnappers a new way to harm and access young children. However I
do support this concept with elderly people who suffer from a medical
condition, such as Alzheimer’s. Such a chip could help and assist people in the
medical field and their patients.
I have to agree with Adriana about how if these chips were put into children, how do we know predators and kidnappers couldn't be able to access it. Hacking is a major issue in our society today and I am pretty sure someone out there could break into the system. I believe that 18 would be a decent age to deactivate these chips if the parent did put them into the children because this is the set age that our society considers people to be adults.
ReplyDeleteI understand that there are potential hackers who could track a child using the chip. At the same time though the hacker would most likely not have an exact location of the chip and be able to remove it in a timely manner before the parents of said child would be able to respond and call the police. If anything I think it would deter predators from children known to have that equipped as it is an extra layer of defense in the mind of the predator that he or she has to get through. In essence it is not practical from the view of the predator to target a child with tracking.
ReplyDeleteI do agree though on your viewpoint to track elderly patient afflicted with Alzheimer's and similar diseases for easier time and more safety of that patient.
I agree with Mark Lyscars point that the chip should be deactivated when the child turns to be eighteen years of age. The only situation that the chip should remain installed would be instances of that child not acting in his or her own interest such as committing crimes or doing drugs. Another instance, albeit rare, is that the child wishes to continue being tracked by his or her parents with the GPS tracker device after reaching eighteen years of age.