I am a new father. With hawk like vision, I spend most of my days transfixed on my new son’s whereabouts, barely letting him break the unseen six foot boundary I have created in my own mind.
This can’t last forever though, sooner or later, I will have to let go, and watch helplessly as my son embarks on his journey into adolescence and beyond.
Do I have to let go fully though?
In the digital age, it is just about possible to keep tabs on anyone with an iPhone, and with social media becoming bigger and more advanced, it takes only seconds to let the world know exactly where you are, who you are with, and what you are doing.
As an adoptive father, I know all too well the security risks posed by social media. My own son’s identity is kept secret for very good reasons, but when the time comes for my son to broaden his horizons, I have no qualms with using a tracking app.
If technology has made parents paranoid, it is not necessarily a bad thing. It is the same technology that is used to groom, manipulate, and take advantage of children. The easier it gets for us to announce our arrival in a foreign country via our mobile phone, the easier it is for children to take that one last, lost step.
More fool you if you think a tracking app is a step too far.
The use of such an app needs to be managed however. It is not a tool to be used to trap your disobedient children, but a safeguard to ensure they can take part in all of life’s fun without the fear of becoming isolated.
I would like to think it can be used with children, rather than against them.
My son is very young, and it is not time to empower myself with this kind of technology, but that doesn’t mean I can’t prepare myself. Who knows where advancements in technology will take us over the next ten or twenty years. It is my responsibility to keep on top of it, at least, for my child’s sake.
By:
Andrew McDougall
http://www.theonehandman.co.uk/
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