Phones that track kids

It probably makes sense that South Korea - where 75% of the people carry at least one cell phone - would be one of the first countries to have mobiles that keep track of kids' whereabouts. According to Reuters, the SK Telecom phones, which cost about $90, tap into the global positioning satellite network (GPS). Reuters adds that "the phone has four buttons to save phone numbers of key contacts, such as Mum and Dad. The GPS technology works even when the phone is turned off." Some child advocates wonder, though, what would happen if people other than Mom or Dad should use this tech to track children (see "Monitoring kids by mobile phone"). Where kids are concerned, technology is never either all positive or all negative. [An alternative to mere tracking is the idea of parental controls on cell phones, which is in the works in the UK and US (see my feature on this, 5/7.]

Meanwhile, cultural differences in cell-phone behavior have already emerged, the BBC reports, citing a Surrey University study. For example: "In Paris and Madrid, users are happy to stand in the street and talk. But Londoners prefer to create a temporary phone zone where several users, unaware of each other, stop to speak in the same place."