'Limited use' of tracking devices
Updated on 28 October 2007
Hi-tech tracking devices designed to keep children safe could lead to parents having a false sense of security about their children's whereabouts, a trust set up in memory of murdered hostess Lucie Blackman has warned.
Matt Searle, spokesman for the Isle of Wight based Lucie Blackman Trust, said that GPS tracking devices only have a limited use as they only show where the person is located and not whether they are safe.
He said they are not fitted with alarms and therefore do not show if the person had fallen a victim to crime.
Mr Searle said: "With the tracker signal static in the park for example, there is no way of telling if the user is sitting on a bench, or has been beaten up by a mugger.
"Tracker systems do not raise the alarm - they can simply give a false sense of safety. They only work in the rare case of abduction, and even then it is likely they would have been discarded."
Mr Searle added that trackers could be used for sinister purposes by being placed in a vulnerable person's bag in order for them to be followed home.
Mr Searle said the Trust, which was set up by Lucie's father Tim Blackman, from Ryde, Isle of Wight, with the aim of helping young people keep safe, had carried out research into emerging technologies.
He said that a preferable device was a locator which acts as a panic button through raising the alarm by sending a text message, emails and voice calls to designated contacts giving the location of the device.
Mr Searle said: "Locators are activated by the person if they get into difficulty or are attacked. Locators act as a discreet call for help in an emergency but cannot be tracked by others or used to target victims."
The Lucie Blackman Trust was founded after 21-year-old Lucie Blackman, from Sevenoaks, Kent, went missing in Tokyo in July 2000, and was found killed seven months later.
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