Child Safety in Japan

All the mobile phone carriers in Japan have mobiles for kids which include features like:-

• A cord which when pulled lets off a loud screech to scare away pedo bears.
• A filter to stop kids from viewing harmful sites (like dannychoo.com ?)
• GPS - tied to the parents phone so that mum/dad can see exactly where their kids are (wasting money in the arcade etc).

The latest Kids mobile phone from Docomo also includes:-

• A remote wrist band which is paired to the mobile. If the wrist band and mobile are seperated for more than a certain amount of meters, the wrist band will start to buzz.
  If the wrist band and mobile are separated for more than 5 minutes, a mail will be sent to the parents.
  The button on the wrist band can be pressed anytime to locate the mobile too.
• The phone is also waterproof useful for when kids are trapped under water for some reason.

This method of tracking kids with a mobile phone is a good attempt but not perfect. But soon, tracking/GPS methods where devices can be implanted *in* kids (under the skin or whatever) will be more readily available (already available - kind of ^^;) and I've always wanted to know how many parents would use such a technology.

But when this starts to happen, evil folks will start to hack the system and be able to track our every movements - its kind of getting like the Matrix now...

Todays quick Japanese lesson is "Keitai" [携帯[けいたい]] which means "mobile." "Anata wa keitai wo motteimasuka?" [あなたは携帯を持っていますか?] = "Do you have a mobile phone?"
Images from Akihabara News and details from Impress.