[IP] Where R U? Text service tracks teens
Begin forwarded message:
From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: July 20, 2005 3:42:30 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Where R U? Text service tracks teens
Dave:
From today's (UK) Guardian:
Where R U? Text service tracks teens
Lucy Ward, social affairs correspondent
Wednesday July 20, 2005
The Guardian
It is a familiar dilemma for parents of teenagers testing new-found
independence - do you sit at home fretting over their after-school
whereabouts or call their mobiles and risk a tirade against over-
protectiveness?
The answer, according to one company, is a hi-tech apron string
based on the mobile phone location tracking techniques used in
police investigations.
The new KidsOK service, sold in shops including Boots and Bhs as
the summer holidays start, allows parents to use their own mobiles
and their children's to "discreetly" locate wandering offspring (or
their phones, at least) to within about 500m in built-up areas.
Instead of dialling their teenager's number, parents subscribing to
the service send or "ping" a text message including the child's
name to a special mailbox. Within 60 seconds, they receive a map
(if they have a picturephone) or a description showing the position
of the youngster's phone.
The system uses technology which traces the location of a mobile by
pinpointing it within the three nearest mobile phone masts. Because
the masts are clustered in built-up areas, the method is most
accurate in cities and gives a much less precise picture in rural
areas.
. . . .
Full story:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1532026,00.htm
cheers
brian
--
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon
Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell@xxxxxxxxx PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/
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