Question:
Okay, recently I've seen ads on television talking about having a micro-chip inserted into your pet so that they can be easily located if lost. They say in this ad that this process is non-invasive -- just like getting a shot. My husband jokingly said "why not use this on kids?" I started thinking about this and am wondering if this might be a real possibility. It breaks my heart when I read about a missing child -- can't even imagine what the parents must go through. So I want to know what you think, okay? What am I overlooking?

Choices:
Sounds like a good idea -- might work
No, I wouldn't even use this on a pet
No, before you know it the government will make this mandatory to keep "track" of us
Are you sober while you're posting this?
No opinion

 

EEEEEEEK!!!! No! No! No lojacking of humans....tempting as it might be to say "Oh, this way I can always know where my kid is" you don't actually have a moral right to leave your child with a choice between being tagged like a caught and released specimen, trackable for life or in the alternative, having to get this microchip removed which I suspect would involve a procedure similar to Norplant birth control rods that are implanted under the skin, the removal of which is costly,painful, time consuming and frequently leaves significant scarring.
What an adult does with their own right to privacy is one thing but I feel deeply that it would be tragically wrong to make a choice now that effectively waives your grown child's right to privacy down the road.

The microchip in a pet only identifies the pet to someone using a scanner. It does not help to locate the pet that has wandered off: it just identifies it when captured

You can get radio collars which do locate the animal as it travels. The man trying to sell me one said "It locates the dog to a position plus or minus six metres" at which I was bound to reply" Yeah, right. And how do you suggest I catch an unwilling Irish Wolfhound standing at six metres off ? "

We do 'tag' human offenders in the UK sometimes. The tag works like the dog collar above. Kids might not take kindly to a device like a leg-brace locked to their leg

Were I a bad guy (which I am not, so please spare me the flak) who grabbed a child (for any reason) in a time when such chips were being used, I would simply cut the chip out. Taping it to a car, bus, or (better yet) a police cruiser, would provide me with plenty of laughs. After all, would I be worried about harming the child by cutting the chip out?

Off-topic and I apologize for that.
(in a tone of childish and delighted awe)Fred, you keep Irish Wolfhounds? OH!
I just love them, we had a Wolfhound/ Dane cross when I was young and he was the sweetest and most entertaining four legged family member we ever had... Please scritch your overgrown clowns behind the ear for me.

Okay, I thought that these micro-chips could be used as a tracing device but not so. Fred, in this country we do use anklets on some convicted of crime but can live at home as an alternate to jail -- mainly because there isn't enough room in our prison system. But I'm sure, as pointed out by our devious DG, that these could be easily cut off of a kid too.

quote:

Originally posted by MrsS:
Off-topic and I apologize for that.
(in a tone of childish and delighted awe)Fred, you keep Irish Wolfhounds? OH!
I just love them, we had a Wolfhound/ Dane cross when I was young and he was the sweetest and most entertaining four legged family member we ever had... Please scritch your overgrown clowns behind the ear for me.

It shall be done (always assuming they are not now in the next county) Wolfs never leave your side unless they see a hare or a deer, in which case you need a helicopter.Mine always head across open country, never taking even a lane unless it's absolutely unavoidable. As the two bitches have now, again, taken to letting themselves into some lady's kitchen in the next village and helping themselves to anything she has left out they have become a little easier to find, notwithstanding the sudden crop of both hares and deer to lead them astray. I just wait for the phone call from her . She has even been known to give them a lift back: people are a soft lot around here

And yes, our villainous youths also get free of their tags and often enough this is not detected for a long while, if at all.

By the way... there are tagging systems you can give your kids in the form of attractive bracelets and cool watches. They have been on the market for quite a while and are not an obvious source of tracking so if the kids a swiped they can be tracked. Of course I would discuss this with the children if they are old enough so they know not to take of the jewelry or watches.

example of such a device.

There are also cell phones equipped with this technology.

Thank you, Sherasi -- can't believe that I don't see an advertizement for this every day!