How would you feel if you found out that you were microchipped by your parents? The initial thought is extremely disturbing.
Microchipping your pet involves implanting a small chip with your contact information in between the animal’s shoulder blades. The chip can be read by a scanner at most animal shelters, and it’s used to help return an animal to its rightful owner when it’s brought to the shelter.
But like child leashes, microchipping children has officially become a thing for some parents.
You can call it safe parenting, but I call it suffocating a child while inhibiting their lack of curiosity and trust within themselves.
Either way, it’s completely unethical and degrading to a child, let alone an adult.
I even went as far as to ask my parents if they would’ved microchip me if the option was available.
My parents responded with what I feel many traditional parents would respond with — that they were protective parents. They also always had a close eye on my sister and I, and they never left either of us alone or venture into sketchy or unwelcoming areas.
My dad also touched upon the idea of the recent increase in crime in the U.S.
“When you and your sister were young, things were very different,” he said. “Even today, I believe if parents are more involved with their kids and properly guide them through their childhood years, there is no reason to microchip a child.”
But people see two sides to this, each with different solutions.
On one hand, parents of children with special needs, specifically autism, discuss how this may be a revolutionary way to ensure their child’s safety.
Alternatively, by microchipping your child, you are downgrading the sense of trust you have in them and removing the idea of face-to-face communication.
It’s understandable parents want to do everything they can to protect their child from the crime-laden world we live in. I would feel the same way.
We’ve all probably heard about microchipping because whenever we are faced with a visit to the vet, it’s the first thing we are told we should be doing for our animal if it isn’t something that has already been done.
But microchips behind dogs’ ears are simply a barcode used to locate the dog if returned to the pound. They are not GPS trackers.
And if they actually used a microchip for children, they would not only need to surgically implant the chip itself but also a cellular receiver and a battery as well.
What person in their right mind would voluntarily want a microchip, receiver and a battery surgically placed under their skin? Not me, and I am sure not you either.
Besides, they make GPS trackers for kids. And in cool fashionable ways, too, like a bracelet, temporary tattoo, or even hidden in clothing. And all of these methods are drastically less intrusive and painful than microchips.
Nevertheless, there are plenty of other resources that parents can use, instead of treating their offspring like puppies.
BrickHouse Security CEO Todd Morris mentions that the less intrusive GPS tracking options are in much higher demand.
The most popular product that BrickHouse currently has on the market is the relatively reasonable Spark Nano 4.0. It is a small, rectangular GPS tracker that can be attached to a child’s seatbelt.
Another BrickHouse product is the Toddler Tag Child Locator, which can clip on a child’s clothing, shoes or bag. It notifies the parent to its own transmitter that they have, which also doubles as a keychain, when the child wanders more than 30 feet away.
But parents of children with disabilities are very much in favor of these alternate GPS tracking devices for their children, especially parents of children with autism.
As stated by the Interactive Autism Network, about half of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder between the ages of 4 and 10 tend to wander.
This statistic is daunting, considering that 35 percent of families of children with autism report that their child is primarily nonverbal and can seldom speak their name, phone number or address, according to the Interactive Autism Network community.
But parents of children without disabilities also carry the same concern as many parents — the fear of their child disappearing right before their eyes.
With the amount of crime and shootings we see in the news today, child abductions don’t seem that far fetched at times, at least for the paranoid and overprotective parents. And it is built in a parent’s psyche to constantly worry about their progeny.
But the negatives that exist with microchipping children certainly outweigh the positives, no questions asked.
Children need freedom to explore, ask questions and be inquisitive. It’s in their nature to be curious. To shield them from that is only going to instill in them constant fear of the world we live in, and the inability to be independent and problem solve on their own.
And even as technology continues to become more high-tech, maybe we can still resort to proper parenting, positive and negative reinforcement and rule-abiding behavior to strengthen parents trust in their youngsters.
Jen Blate is a 24-year-old sociology junior from Miami, Florida. You can reach her on Twitter @Jblate_TDR.