New Cell Phones Allow Parents to Track Teens

Hit the power button, and you quickly realize this is no ordinary cell phone. A message indicating "Java powered," followed by a long wait, then a logo for "Teen Arrive Alive," with a note saying "This phone may be tracking you." Finally, a star scrolling across the screen as the phone tries to make contact with satellites up above.

Global positioning technology isn't new; neither are cell phones. One might ask why it even took this long. But they're here. Parents, concerned about the safety or whereabouts of their teenagers, can arm the youngsters with a specially equipped Nextel phone, then sit down at their computer, and follow the teen's every move.

Where they've been. What direction they're headed. Roughly how fast they're driving. How long they've stayed at each location. We tested the phone last week, and it works. But the debate over whether they should even be on the market is just heating up.

This reporter, along with photojournalist Byron Reed, took a leisurely drive through the metro area, stopping at Stapleton, downtown, Red Rocks, Littleton, then back toward the 9News studios at Speer and Logan. We then logged onto Teen Arrive Alive's web site, keyed in our username and password, and there it was. An exact record of everywhere we'd been. It was flawless.

Reaction to this technology and the way it's marketed was decidedly mixed. Betsy Henry, a pre-school teacher and mother of two teenage boys, loved it.

"I think it's important for a parent to be involved in their child's life, and I would look at it probably all the time, but I maybe wouldn't bring it up that I'd been looking," said Henry.

Jane Carlson, another mother of teenagers, said she was intrigued by the concept, and would consider using it as an additional safety tool. At the same time, Carlson had concerns about potential abuse of the technology.

"I would use it as a parent, I certainly wouldn't be giving it to my husband or vice versa," said Carlson.

Perhaps not surprisingly, most teenagers we spoke to were substantially less enthusiastic about the GPS equipped phones. Katie Cross, a student at Euclid Middle School in Littleton, called them "flat out ridiculous."

"The minute they start driving and they get that phone, it's like, 'We don't trust you, here you go,'" said Cross.

If Cross felt the phones might lead to a breakdown of trust between parents and teenagers, the American Civil Liberties Union was disgusted. Kathryn Hazouri, executive director of the Colorado Chapter of the ACLU, called the program "creepy."

"I think what it says to a student or a teenager is 'I don't trust you to make good judgments,'" said Hazouri. She added this isn't just the beginning of a slippery slope toward total loss of privacy. In her opinion, it already goes way over the line.

But Teen Arrive Alive, a Florida-based company that's marketing the phones, touts a number of potential safety benefits. In addition to equipping parents with the ability to monitor teens who might be inclined toward behavior not considered appropriate, parents can also track children who might wind up in legitimate trouble. Suppose they've been abducted, or suffered a mechanical breakdown. The phones might enable parents or police to track down the individuals more quickly than without the technology.

Recently, police used the communication sent between a cell phone and its tower to catch suspected serial rapist Brent J. Brents. Though it has not been reported the phone was GPS equipped, it was still in communication with a variety of towers as Brents sped westward along I-70, carrying with him a suspected rape victim. (Watch This Story)

Separately, a school district in Oregon recently cancelled a pilot program in which students wore electronic cards around their chest. When they entered the classroom, a machine above the door detected the cards, tracking when the students arrived in class.

Hazouri, who adamantly claims not to be a conspiracy theorist, is concerned the increasing use of GPS might ultimately lead to millions of Americans being tracked unknowingly or against their will.

Written by: Andrew Resnik, KUSA News

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