How much is your child worth?
This past week brought more devastating news of abducted children. A 3 day old newborn was taken from a hospital in Texas and a six year old Georgia boy disappeared while walking back from a neighbor’s 1 block away from his home. The baby girl was found a couple of days later in New Mexico but the six year old still has not been found. A sexual predator has since been arrested on suspicion of being involved with his disappearance.
Like the little newborn girl, news of kidnapped children being found alive is always a wonderful outcome. In January, 13 year old Ben Ownby, who went missing January 8, and 15 year old Shawn Hornbeck, who had been missing for four long years were found. Craig Akers, Hornbeck’s stepfather, had given up everything he had in the search for his son and other missing children. In fact, he and his wife started a foundation to help in the search for other missing children (The Shawn Hornbeck Foundation – http://www.shawnhornbeck.com/). The discovery of his little boy, now fifteen, was a beautiful blessing.
Amber Alerts flash across the TV screen and the radio stations stop to ask the public to watch for yet another child that has gone missing. Week after week and month after month, stories continue to hit the media of children, teenagers, and young adults disappearing, many only to be found dead later. And for what purpose? For the sick perverted pleasure of a depraved person whose selfish desires are worth more than your child’s life.
Some steps have been made toward the punishment of these criminals, such as “Jessica’s Law” in Florida and similar statutes in other states. But these are only laws that are used after the fact, once a child has been harmed. What about preventative measures; or a least a process to find the victim before they have been harmed or killed. A controversial method involving GPS tracking may be the answer.
For years, animals have been injected with a microchip about the size of a grain of rice to help with keeping track of their location. Some merely have information that lets the person scanning the animal know to whom it belongs. Other chips actually incorporate GPS technology which allows tracking by satellite. This technology is so advanced that the animal could be tracked to a space of a few square meters. The question arises whether the same technology could be used with people. The answer is yes.
Verizon Wireless has plans to help parent locate their children using cell phones (http://www.mobiletracker.net/archives/2006/01/20/verizon-lbs). And a chip embedded shoe will be on the market later this month. Isaac Daniels, who had a scare when his 8 year old went missing in 2002, has developed this technology to help track the wearer at the press of a button (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2007-02-09-gps-sneakers_x.htm). Fortunately his child was safe, it was just a miscommunication. But would if the child doesn’t have on the shoes or phone or if it is lost or discarded by an abductor? By injecting a chip under the skin, perhaps behind the ear or in the back of the hand, children could be located immediately. Of course teenagers wouldn’t like that but their safety should be paramount. There is always the fear that the technology could be abused by the Government, but seeing that the measure would be voluntary and the fact that the chip could be removed, probably after the child becomes an adult and decides to, should alleviate some fears, especially among civil libertarians and people with privacy concerns.
Had this idea been used earlier, perhaps children like Danielle van Dam, Samantha Runnion, and Jessica Lundsford would still be alive. Other kidnapped children like Hornbeck and Ownby, who thankfully were found alive, could have been found not after days, or in Hornbeck’s situation, years, rather, they would have been found immediately. With the continuing rate of children being abducted, look for this option to gain support. As for the concern about privacy, the question becomes, what is your child worth?
Like the little newborn girl, news of kidnapped children being found alive is always a wonderful outcome. In January, 13 year old Ben Ownby, who went missing January 8, and 15 year old Shawn Hornbeck, who had been missing for four long years were found. Craig Akers, Hornbeck’s stepfather, had given up everything he had in the search for his son and other missing children. In fact, he and his wife started a foundation to help in the search for other missing children (The Shawn Hornbeck Foundation – http://www.shawnhornbeck.com/). The discovery of his little boy, now fifteen, was a beautiful blessing.
Amber Alerts flash across the TV screen and the radio stations stop to ask the public to watch for yet another child that has gone missing. Week after week and month after month, stories continue to hit the media of children, teenagers, and young adults disappearing, many only to be found dead later. And for what purpose? For the sick perverted pleasure of a depraved person whose selfish desires are worth more than your child’s life.
Some steps have been made toward the punishment of these criminals, such as “Jessica’s Law” in Florida and similar statutes in other states. But these are only laws that are used after the fact, once a child has been harmed. What about preventative measures; or a least a process to find the victim before they have been harmed or killed. A controversial method involving GPS tracking may be the answer.
For years, animals have been injected with a microchip about the size of a grain of rice to help with keeping track of their location. Some merely have information that lets the person scanning the animal know to whom it belongs. Other chips actually incorporate GPS technology which allows tracking by satellite. This technology is so advanced that the animal could be tracked to a space of a few square meters. The question arises whether the same technology could be used with people. The answer is yes.
Verizon Wireless has plans to help parent locate their children using cell phones (http://www.mobiletracker.net/archives/2006/01/20/verizon-lbs). And a chip embedded shoe will be on the market later this month. Isaac Daniels, who had a scare when his 8 year old went missing in 2002, has developed this technology to help track the wearer at the press of a button (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2007-02-09-gps-sneakers_x.htm). Fortunately his child was safe, it was just a miscommunication. But would if the child doesn’t have on the shoes or phone or if it is lost or discarded by an abductor? By injecting a chip under the skin, perhaps behind the ear or in the back of the hand, children could be located immediately. Of course teenagers wouldn’t like that but their safety should be paramount. There is always the fear that the technology could be abused by the Government, but seeing that the measure would be voluntary and the fact that the chip could be removed, probably after the child becomes an adult and decides to, should alleviate some fears, especially among civil libertarians and people with privacy concerns.
Had this idea been used earlier, perhaps children like Danielle van Dam, Samantha Runnion, and Jessica Lundsford would still be alive. Other kidnapped children like Hornbeck and Ownby, who thankfully were found alive, could have been found not after days, or in Hornbeck’s situation, years, rather, they would have been found immediately. With the continuing rate of children being abducted, look for this option to gain support. As for the concern about privacy, the question becomes, what is your child worth?
