Parents, have you ever bought your kid a cell phone, only to have the ungrateful, blithe little bastard NOT answer it when you called? WHAT the hell are they doing anyway? Having unprotected sex? Sampling wares at a backwoods meth lab? Car surfing, hazing, off somewhere playing dumb video games, or even killing? There's so much to worry about.

And so....a Japanese company in March 2006 will introduce GPS-enabled cell phones for parents allowing them to track their kids' locations, even if they won't answer.

And then what? Get in the car and track them down? Or call the cops?

Sadly, it all reaches the point of uselessness pretty quickly, as technophile commenters at silicon.com oberve.

Parentis loco, in technology.

Ain't no thing like the real thing.

TECHNORATI TAGS: 3G, GPS, CELL PHONES, JAPAN, PARENTS, KIDS, BEHAVIOR

TO COMMENT: The regular "comment" feature is not in operation. E-mail comments to address under "Contact" on main page masthead, and I'll add them, here.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at November 27, 2005 10:20 PM