Here’s a topic close to my heart since my child is currently attending day care (or pre-school as some call it). It is true that it can be very hard to monitor what happens there, how our daughter interacts with other children or how she is treated by the teachers, especially since she cannot easily communicate these things herself, as school-age children can. But is this the answer? Could over-protection or over-monitoring lead to other problems? And what do you think about day care in general? Is it a better or worse environment for young children than the home?
It’s all about money, money and once more money. Or if I should be more precise, it’s all about the folly and easily manipulated people who buy the first piece of crap that comes to their hands. And seriously Japanese are like the masters when it comes to wasting money on “futuristic super modern rubbish”. In this particular case, they won’t consider the possibility that their children don’t really need to be monitored and that the expensive device is directed for the naive and rich ones (well actually of course they won’t, if they are the naive ones). Obviously dozens of them are going to buy the “fantastic device” for their little angels, because they want the best for them and they think this is doubtlessly the best way to take, when it comes to the question whether their kids are perfectly safe and happy at their daycare.
ReplyDeleteBut a parent is also only a human who makes mistakes. The minute he starts to watch what his child is doing, he becomes a true “big brother”. He won’t be able to concentrate on his job, because he will be busy watching his child all the time. And what would eventually happen, can be shown on a simple example. The child falls into mud; parent sees it, calls immediately to the teacher and tells her how stupid she is and how she even dares to let this happen. You get my point?
Parents have a natural way of overreacting and exaggerating when it comes to the comfort of their child, so they would make a hell of a living for their children’s teachers, like you have observed in my previous example when a “no biggish” accident changed into an ear-piercing monologue of the parent. But that’s not everything. Except this fact, the device would also secure an implementation of a permanent feeling in the child’s head that it is being constantly watched. This would lead to the fact, that it wouldn’t be able to do anything spontaneously. Hmm, they didn’t think about this did they?
To conclude, I think parents should have the right to know how their child is doing and how it is treated at daycare. I also think it is good they have a chance to buy a device, which provides a good way of monitoring the two mentioned factors. However I definitely perceive the devices as useless. Hence, the reason why I think the devices are useless is because I believe 99 percent of children at daycare don’t need to be monitored, because the conditions are safe and the teachers have sufficient pedagogic skills, doing all they can to provide the children with joy and comfort. Nevertheless there are exceptions, but I strongly believe these are very occasional and the device wouldn’t stop them from happening.
Branislav Skocek IB3
Safety first- that is one of the basic rules used by the majority of population. If we believe in this credo then I would say the devices made for looking after children from remote places are a good idea. Parents can see the picture of the scene that is in front of their child when their heart starts throbbing faster and that is in my opinion a well-thought timing. Scientists got it right as the heart starts beating faster either when the kids are scared or when they run too fast or when they are experiencing an adrenaline rush and all of these options could be potentially dangerous and therefore might interest their parents. Even if nothing nasty happened, parents should be well aware about what their child went through during the day and as the article claims and I agree with it, kids at the pre-school age are not very able to express themselves.
ReplyDeleteHowever I feel that these devices shouldn’t serve as a substitution for a real conversation with a child. Some parents might wrongly assume that when they saw everything important from that day through the camera they do not have to talk properly with their child about their experiences. If such cases occurred then I would say the whole purpose of the checking devices was misunderstood and they would do more harm than benefit.
In the article the creators of the gadget claim that the device is light and the electromagnetic waves are minimal. If it was really true then one of my concerns would evaporate because there are always new and new studies on the topic how dangerous the electromagnetic waves are. Hopefully they are not present in a large amount so that they wouldn’t harm the children who are using it.
Concerning the privacy issues I suppose that it doesn’t have to be necessarily spying on the kids when it’s only for the safety reasons. If parents discussed the use of the device with their kids and explained to them why it’s good to wear it and agreed on it together it would be fine and would not be a subject of another debate.
When a child reaches the age of 3 years, i think it is important to send them off to day care. Both for family financial reasons (as both parents are able to work) and the child's healthy social development. In day care, children the basics of communication, of sharing things and working together to achieve something. They learn to make new friends and learn how to play with others. All of these different skills and traits could not possibly be honed at home (even with one or two siblings).
ReplyDeleteHowever, sometimes the child may be uncomfortable in the day care. The other kids can treat him badly especially if he looks different or speaks in a different way or is for example an introvert. The parent has no chance of knowing any of these things that can have a chance at affecting the healthy development of the child. This gadget can help parents that are unsure about how their child is doing know if something is wrong or not (as a child doesn't usually know how to express his feelings).
There was a part in the article that talked about the privacy of the child. I think that this is just absurd. How can you talk about the privacy of a 5 year old kid from his parents. Teenagers and older kids have the right for some privacy from their parents but not small children. I agree with Seung-Hee Lee from the text that keeping a child safe is much more important than keeping his privacy from his parents.
The technology is getting better and better. That is surely true and this phenomenon is encouraging some people, but some people are also afraid of it. As the evolution is bringing modern, faster, more usable devices, there are also some more dangerous effects of the never endless ending development.
ReplyDeleteFor example this topic is about small devices being used in the Japan. Some children and mothers are part of the experiment, where the children are given small chips and their eye-view, heart rate, position and sometimes also voice is observed. This way, the scientist wants to try the effect of monitoring children by working mothers. During the day, mothers could observe their children activities on internet pages (password protected), where are photos and heart rate changes presented.
Some properties of the gadget are fairly important. For example the size, the shape and sensibleness. The device has to be created in a way that it does not hinder, it is not heavy, and it does not make the lives of children harder.
What I find good at this innovation, is the GPS location tracker. It could be very useful in some special cases, for example when the child gets lost unexpectedly. Also bullying or some other dangerous out-of-law actions could be noticed.
What is not absolutely excellent is the presence of electro-magnetic waves that are transferred from and to the device. "The signals are weak, but we set it up that way to make it safe," says team-member Masatoshi Hamanaka. By now, the devices are also very expensive. The manufacturers said that they will create gadget with cheaper sensors. This is absolutely advantageous, because the gadget becomes more accessible, but lower prize sometimes means also lower quality.
The idea of developing and including the microphone with device is not the best solution. Since it completely quashes the individual development of a child causing controlling the freedom of a child. Importing parent´s opinions into all his ideas.
"I'm a mother and I'd say that if it's a parent's choice between a child's privacy and keeping them safe, most would choose the latter," said one of the mothers. I understand the mother’s position in this case. The safety of the children is more important to them than privacy.
To sum it up, I understand the potential and usefulness of this device. I understand why mothers want to control and monitor their children during the time they are not together, but every personal character is being developed during their young age. Children have to learn how to deal with life. They would not be under the control all their lives (I hope :-)). I am glad that I was not the part of this experience and I hope it would not come to Europe till my child´s kinder garden time.