Smartwatches cause new trouble

The market for GPS watches for children is booming. Many parents are already buying such devices for primary school children because - compared to smartphones - they are supposed to lead to significantly fewer conflicts in everyday life. But this is deceptive, because these watches are causing new problems.

When the seven-year-olds get into a fight on the playground, a swipe of the wrist is all it takes to call out for mum: «Yuri was bothering me,» complains the supposedly weaker one.

«We've actually experienced something like that,» explains one headteacher. And in the afternoon supervision of another school, children have been recorded with the recording function of a smartwatch and others have even been filmed. «That's not acceptable!» the headteacher continued. The after-school staff then took the watches and only handed them back when the underage owners went home.

This may have been a solution in the short term, but how should we deal with a problem that is increasingly causing unrest and resentment in primary schools? Can these watches even fulfil their promise of safety if the purchase is mainly based on diffuse fears on the part of parents? And what price do young children pay for constant accessibility?

A watch with many functions

GPS watches for children are classed as wearables. These are electronic devices that are worn on the body. Wearables include smart clothing, headphones and children's smartwatches with a GPS function. Depending on the model and price range, they offer live tracking, GPS positioning and an emergency call function.

Children must be able to move freely and learn to act independently. A GPS watch delays this development.

These watches are designed to notify parents as soon as the child leaves a predefined radius. The so-called school mode is designed to ensure concentration during lessons. Some watches even have a camera function or can be used as an alarm clock. Children can use the watch to call their parents or receive calls from them. Voice and text messages are also possible.

Fewer worries in real time

Mums and dads manage all matters via an app. As already mentioned, they often opt for a GPS watch for children because they don't want to give their child a push-button mobile phone or smartphone at primary school for the time being. But there are other plausible reasons.

When young children set off to school on their own for the first time, this causes understandable anxiety for many parents. Road traffic is the first hurdle for them to navigate the world independently. However, seven children are killed on the way to school in Switzerland every year, writes the BFU, the Bern-based accident prevention advisory centre. «40 per cent of serious accidents involving children happen on the way to school,» it continues.

Comprehensive road safety education can prevent bad things from happening, but a watch cannot. Nevertheless, it gives many educators a sense of security should a critical situation arise. For example, if children do not make their way home quickly after lessons, but instead dawdle around or walk home without consulting a classmate, we understandably worry. Thanks to a GPS watch, parents can track their child's location in real time at such times.

These watches can then be used to contact and communicate with each other without a smartphone: The child can also contact you in an emergency or can always be reached. This function can even be life-saving, especially for children with health conditions such as diabetes. However, there are also numerous reasons not to buy such a watch.

Lack of data protection

One of the most important points of complaint concerns data protection. Data protection experts often advise against buying such watches, as many manufacturers have their headquarters and servers outside of Europe. Overseas companies in particular are suspected of not taking the privacy of their users very seriously. In the past, sensitive data is said to have been stored unprotected on servers.

Anyone who knows how to gain access can access a lot of information. Even if we adults have a rather lax approach to data protection, for example when we squander our address data for a price discount, stricter standards should apply when it comes to children. Norwegian consumer advocates criticised the possibility of manipulation and found the SOS emergency function of some products to be highly unreliable. Then there are the costs of the watches. Many devices require a SIM card. In any case, there are further points of criticism with regard to child development.

Loss of privacy

Children need to be able to move freely and learn to act independently, which then helps them to achieve personal maturity and greater self-confidence. A GPS watch delays this development and lulls children into a false sense of security. To protect them from real dangers, only joint discussions and rules will help. Preventative education about risks and dangers - for example, road traffic and contact from strangers - is also essential. And at school, there should actually be binding rules for children's smartwatches that go beyond the school mode mentioned at the beginning.

More and more schools are now banning the use of such watches, as they disrupt lessons and can be filmed or spied on. However, as with the smartphone debate, a ban makes little sense, because once the device is there, children need to learn how to use it responsibly. However, children are often too young to do this, especially in primary school, so the idea of safety leads to excessive demands and no purchase would probably be the better alternative.