Too much too young?
Recently, I watched a startling advertisement promoting two children using the fitness wearable device in their daily lives, the Fitbit Ace. It begs the question: why should our young kids be introduced to even more addictive technology mediums?
FITNESS TECHNOLOGY = HEALTHY KIDS?
The advertisement promoted the Fitbit Ace, a wearable ‘designed for kids’. Let that sink in a little – ‘designed for kids’, a high-tech wearable device for 8 years or older children.
Looking at the ad, is explores two children initially getting a notification on their Ace’s to be active, so they oblige and play around in the backyard. Okay, so far nothing wrong here. However, the narrator then states: “When kids crush their goals, Ace buzzes with fireworks making every success a celebration.” Right, so when activity goal’s are met, white LED animations notifies kids? How motivating! The one minute promo then goes on to exacerbate this as the Fitbit tracks their sleep “so that they’re rested and ready for a new day”.
The health-focused tech-giant highlights that technology, like the Fitbit Ace, motivates children to be more active and healthy through notifications and activity goals – set through a mobile app.
The problem is, kids younger than eight are already screen-addicted as a report from Common Sense Media, an organisation aiding families to control technology for children, proclaims: “Mobile is totally taking over – it now [2017] makes up 35% of screen time, compared to 4% in 2011.” Additionally, Douglas Gentile, a psychology professor at Iowa State University emphasises to CNN that, “On the one hand it’s not surprising because it’s what we look around ourselves and can see. I can see it at the airport, for example, I can see it at restaurants and I can even see it in my own home where my younger daughter watches almost no television but she’ll watch lots of TV shows on her phone” (CNN, 2017).
So if children are more glued to tech and screens more than ever, why should we add a wristband to that equation? And it’s not just Fitbit. Other manufacture’s including SPACETALK from MGM Wireless, Garmin, and various miscellaneous brands are launching these ‘kid-made’ wearables to also allow parents to monitor their kids’ location and activity. To note, these products vary in price from a sizeable $89AUD for a Fitbit Ace to $349AUD for a smartwatch-like SPACETALK. Fundamentally, it’s like slapping a cheaper Apple Watch on your children’s wrists. How is this ethical and beneficial at all?
Put simply, if you want your kids to be active, go out a little, play with them – not buying a superfluous and addictive wearable device to somehow ‘motivate’ them to be healthier. Remember that these are young developing children we’re talking about, not adults.
It’s rather ironic: buying more tech to get kids off tech, a clear double standard.
THE GLARING ISSUE
There are really two factor’s: tech-addiction and parents surveilling their kids. The latter is emphatically just and moral – it is innate in a parent’s role to keep their children safe. Resulting from this, it is yet another compelling reason to buy a fitness tracker as most include GPS technology to monitor the devices location from an app, and can even take calls via an in-built speaker and microphone.
However, are parents monitoring their kids too closely? Well, this is a topic for a completely different and experienced perspective, but what I do know is: strapping kids with these kinds of technology also imposes privacy risks. Constantly tracking every step, movement of location, with an always-listening microphone can be detrimental if these sensitive data lies in the wrong hands – specifically a cyber criminal.
THE BOTTOM LINE
I cannot stress this enough: do not buy child-friendly fitness tracker’s for your children. It will only exacerbate technology addiction, and pose privacy and safety risks.
While these products ostensibly motivates kids to be healthy and give parents peace-of-mind, children activity trackers are quite the contrary and are only on sale to fill a ‘gap’ in the market to lure more revenue.
My strong advice is to avoid buying any wearable tech for your children. Full stop!
The Connected by Henry Man 