In parts of Britain, when convicts are released on parole they are issued with a piece of kit affectionately known as a ‘Peckham Rolex’, which they are obliged to wear at all times. This is a satellite tracking device, worn on the wrist, that means their exact position at any time can be monitored by the parole authorities, who can check that they are at home where they should be within their curfew hours. The wearers are ex-convicts who, having been tried in court and sentenced to a jail term, have been released before their sentence has been completed. It seems not unreasonable that they should be the subject of continued monitoring and, while it’s manifestly an intrusion on their privacy, it’s not a great price to pay for being back with their family and away from prison food.

Now a Worcestershire based company, LoK8U, preying on the paranoia of many ‘modern’ parents, have launched a ‘Peckham Rolex’ for blameless children. Called the Nu.M8, it looks like an ordinary digital watch for children and has been specifically designed to tell parents exactly where their kids are, to the nearest 10 feet, at any time; they can even track them through the parents’ mobile phones. If a wearer tries to pull it off, the parents are alerted.

I wish LoK8U a great lack of success with this product, and not just because their company and the product have such gruesome ‘Txt’-titles. Any parents who are prepared to issue this device to their kids must be either so unsure of their relationship with them or so paranoid about statistically almost non-existent dangers that they will surely diminish understanding between them and their issue. Children have a right to (some) privacy too.

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