What Would James Bond Do?

by mimi greenwood knight

Be as shrewd as serpents and as harmless
as doves. — Matthew 10:16

Jo Ann Thomas was worried. Her 16-year-old son, Shelby, was scheduled to rehearse a musical at his high school and perform in a skit at church, both on the same night. What if he hadn’t gotten out of practice in time? Should Jo Ann find a way to let the other performers know he’d be late?

Then her husband, Perry, reminded her about the vehicle locator they’d installed on Shelby’s truck from teensurance.com. For $15 a month, the Thomases can log onto the computer at any time and know precisely where the vehicle is. They can also monitor speed limits and curfews. “If Shelby exceeds the set speed limit or breaks his curfew, notification is sent to my phone, to his dad’s phone and to our computer simultaneously. We can set the system to notify us when Shelby arrives at school and work each day, and we can locate his truck whenever we want to.”

JoAnn checked the vehicle locator to see that Shelby’s truck was in the church parking lot right where it was supposed to be, in plenty of time for him to perform in the skit. There are plenty of reasons a parent would want to monitor their children—no matter their ages—and, thanks to modern technology, plenty of ways they can do it.

It’s not about snooping and it’s not about mistrust. It’s about sending innocent children—no matter how savvy our teenagers think they are, they’re every bit as trusting and naive as we were at their age—into an increasingly perilous world. Here are a handful of the rapidly advancing technologies that can help you monitor the safety of your children.