Missing toddlers and truanting teenagers could soon be things of the past with the development of a revolutionary satellite tracking system to enable parents to keep an eye on their children 24 hours a day.
A tiny gadget called KidBug will enable parents to monitor the movements of their children - and the manufacturer plans to give them to 10m parents before the end of the year in the expectation that many will pay the £10-a-month fee to use them. The 4cm sq unit, which can be concealed in a child's clothing, will be able to track the precise location of the child to within five feet using the global positioning satellite tracking system (GPS) more usually used to navigate at sea. Tony Rose, owner of CarBug plc, which makes tracking devices for cars, boats and bicycles, devised the idea after his three-year-old daughter Natanya went missing during a trip to Brent Cross shopping centre in north London. He said: "My wife and I were looking in shop windows and
she disappeared in those few seconds. Any parent would give anything in the world in those few minutes to know where their child is. "I thought it would be simple to make a tracking device using the same mapping software we already use to track cars, boats and bikes." The prototype is already developed and Mr Rose is planning to produce 10m KidBugs in Taiwan at a cost of £500m. Some parents may use KidBug to monitor older children and teenagers suspected of
truanting or mixing with the wrong people. For £10 a month, parents will get a card to place in the gadget and activate the tracking system. The child's location can be shown on a small map on a mobile phone or computer, using satellite navigation and "triangulation" of the mobile phone networks to get locations within buildings. "Eventually, KidBug will be the size of a wristwatch and every child will wear one." Mr Rose plans to distribute the gadgets through schools and doctors' surgeries.