My wife and I will be taking our two young grandsons to Disney World shortly. My son and daughter-in-law will be going as well so the four adults SHOULD be able to concentrate on not losing sight of the children. The fact is that as a realist, that is almost impossible. There have been moments when the 6 year old "hid" from me in a store. Believe me, I lectured him for 10 minutes - it took that long for my heart rate to normalize anyway. For those few seconds, I would have paid anything to know where he was. I checked on several devices including the Verizon Chaperone and an Amber Alert unit. The Amber unit is expensive and the Chaperone is fine if you have the right phones (Chaperone enabled) and you have a phone line on a month to month rather than a 2-year deal. You can turn the Chaperone on and off by controlling your account on-line. I haven't studied the "Little Buddy" long enough yet to comment. Too many people think that Big Brother is watching or that parents are over-reaching. The threat of getting a beating from my father sometimes was enough to change my mind about doing something stupid. Maybe the thought that Mom and Dad are watching via GPS will help deter poor decisions?! Anyway, these devices can offer a great supplement to good parenting, but they shouldn't replace it! Still, they have a time and a place. Before I go to Disney, I will probably have researched every option. Whether I get it or not is a personal choice. Don't chase technology away from parents by using their privacy as a defense. There are a million solid applications for this device. Given that there are so many single parents working and so many bad people out there, we should be seeking as many advantages as possible to know where our kids are at all times. Embedding devices is my next step and if I had the money, they would have had them already!

Here is the problem with the "Little Buddy" Child Tracker that no one is addressing: this device isn't implanted IN the child like a microchip is in a pet. This is a "flash drive" size item that is placed in a lunch box or backpack - so for the parents who want to use this as a "safety measure" against abduction- well you'd better hope they (child & kidnapper) take the lunch box or backpack with them. And wouldn't the "evil person" will also be aware of this new gadget and make sure it is swiftly removed &/or destroyed? This is basically a waste of $100 + $15 monthly service fees on purchasing false safety Perhaps educating kids on the dangers of strangers and possibly self-defense classes might be more productive instead of hoping the flash drive stays with the child?

I like the review and topic. I can see where you are coming from on parents that shirk their responsibility by using this device. Honestly no device or baby sitter or GPS will help that type of parent or person. Of course as with any technology there will be those who use "Superpowers for Evil". I would not be surprised if makers of Little Buddy face a law suit from this type of parent, who is busy sipping their coffee and texting at the park when their kid wonders off. However the parent and protector in me says bring all the child trackers you can and I will be more than happy to test them out on my dogs then my kid. Every day there is an evil person out there who is taking kids, 9 years old, 12 years old, 4 years old, 6 years old all in October alone made national news. Since the law wont let us truly track the evil people, who have a history of evil, than I say track your kid to the best of your ability. GOD forbid something happen to them, you will have a jump start on finding them before it's to late. I remember when Best Buy first had the ad online, there were people saying it was the Gov't setting the stage to track us.....Hey they don't need little buddy for that, your cell phone, traffic cams, satellite photos, google maps, drone planes used in the wars and you cars all have an eye on you. However, I can understand their point about those who use "Superpowers for Evil". I champion anything that helps me, emphasis on ME, protect and raise my child. Ask a parent from "Columbine" about Zangle and I bet they would give anything to go back in time and have Zangle there to help eliminate the confusion and unknown when "Evil" struck that school and community. If Zangle could have given officers and SWAT a view of who, where and what was happening in the school. If it allowed law enforcement to respond minutes or seconds faster and hopefully eliminate the threat and save even one life then what would be said about Zangle. As far as a "Nation of Wimps" I could not agree with that phrase more, but I would not stamp hovering parents and kids with that label...give that one once again to our weak politicians, tolerant judges and pitiful attorneys. They are the ones who establish laws and determine case law. I will take a over-protective, hovering, loving mom and a kid who is learning their way through life with a little fear any day of the week over a mom with a broken heart and a missing child or worse. Please don't misunderstand me, I appreciate the RIGHTEOUS politicians, judges and attorneys out there fighting the good fight. Its a tough road to travel and a job I would never want to have.

I do agree with you, but as the mom of a young child--and an only child, at that, I also find this product tempting. Not because I always want to know where my kid is all the time (I don't, in fact) but because, if he's abducted or something, it would be easier to locate him. I want my kid to develop problem solving skills, and learn to do his own laundry, and not have to depend on me. But he's four, and at such a young age my job is, after all, to protect him. I like to think there's a happy medium, and that we can utilize modern technology without being lazy or bad parents. There's nothing more compelling than the fear of losing a child. I understand fully that the market uses this fear constantly to sell products. There's a reason why it works.