<p>Just adding…anyone else getting “tracking device” ads to the left on their iPads? </p>
<p>To the OP, if you have Adblock…disable it and you will see options for what you want :)</p>
<p>It is easy to worry about the exotic things you envision happening to your D- getting kidnapped, falling off a cliff, being recruited to a violent revolutionary cause. The harder thing is to adequately prepare your D for the run of the mill stuff- equally dangerous, and statistically more likely to happen. Natalie Holloway? Met and danced with a cute guy at a bar on a Caribbean vacation. Turned up dead.</p>
<p>Your d needs to learn to be safe first and foremost. Parents obsess about the exotic but don’t want to warn their kids about the hum-drum. Don’t go anywhere alone with a stranger- even if he’s your own age, is handsome and fun, claims he wants to get to know you better. Don’t go “off the beaten track” without the program chaperones- no “home visits” to have dinner with the family of the nice mango juice vendor you met at the beach. A distressed stranger approaches you on the street and needs to “borrow” your ATM card or your credit card because her wallet was stolen. A kindly middle aged woman tells your d she is scouting for models for a photo shoot and your d has the “right wholesome look”.</p>
<p>These are the same scams and dangers your D would face in downtown Boston or Minneapolis. But somehow kids radars “don’t get into a car with a stranger; don’t give out your ATM password; don’t walk into an empty house with someone you met an hour ago” don’t function well when they are traveling.</p>
<p>I’d spend the time getting your D more street savvy and spend less time worrying about GPS monitoring.</p>
<p>Doesn’t tracking your child’s travels while studying abroad send them a strong message on lack of trust and confidence? A message which will inevitably stunt their experience?</p>
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<p>I know… but I felt it should be said. Probably a combination of the way my brain is wired and my career field.</p>
<p>I’m currently overseas working at an embassy (coming back to the US soon!) and we have the advantage of getting security briefings about all the stuff that goes on locally and what to be on the lookout for. We also go to/from work in armored vehicles. There are places in the city where we aren’t allowed to go. Someone on personal travel can go wherever, but they should be doing the research on various locations and parts of the city they are living in. We are also told which public transportation we are allowed to use and which we are not. An embassy employee was killed in the last couple years, not by the “bad guys” you see on the news, but by local scam/crimes that are briefed to each new person that comes to the embassy. We can get rides from the embassy 24/7, but it’s not always the most convenient. The guy that was killed didn’t follow the guidelines in the security briefing, and he paid for it.</p>
<p>We were also told that if you get mugged don’t bother calling the police because they won’t do a thing about it.</p>
<p>Most places, the traveler is much more likely to face “random” street crime potentially targeted at foreigners, Americans specifically, or those that seem to have money. Keep in mind as an American, in many places of the world you do have $$$, even if you are just a “poor” college kid. There are many places where your table at the bar could spend multiple weeks of a local’s salary. You can generally read about local crime/scams in any country in travel books or the internet.</p>
<p>We were told to order drinks in bottles when we go out. Want beers? Make sure they are opened in front of you. Want shots? Buy a [sealed] bottle. We were briefed on the stories of people going out to a bar, and waking up the next day in their apartment with tons of their stuff missing (robbed after drugs were put in their drinks).</p>
<p>What about credit cards? Is it safe to let your server take your credit card to the back and swipe it, as happens all the time in the U.S.? Where I am, they bring a machine out to the table and we were told never to let our credit cards leave our sight.</p>
<p>We did have an experience where they refused to bring us the check and were demanding cash based on the amount they told us. We sorted that out, but there was a lot of push back and back and forth communication. Things like this can be intimidating in a foreign country, especially if you are not fluent in the local language.</p>
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<p>disagree… the list of countries with State Department travel warnings is long and includes places where people go fairly often, including Israel, Kenya, Russia, Colombia, Mexico, and Honduras.</p>
<p>Always travel smart. Most likely, you will be fine wherever you go (obvious exceptions like North Korea, etc). But it’s always best to travel smart and to read up on what you MIGHT encounter. It could be what makes the difference in coming home safely. </p>
<p>Soccerguy…this kid is doing a study abroad in Burma, and Vietnam. Should the college be reconsidering these sites? Are they currently on SD advisories? </p>
<p>But back to the question…what good will a tracking device do? </p>
<p>I honestly can’t believe parents would actually try to track their adult kids. </p>
<p>My son was in Taiwan over the summer. The most dangerous thing he did (which he told me about afterwards) was ride around the island on the back of his local friend’s scooter. He said the drivers were crazy. Next semester he will be in Poland and he and his other friends who will be in Europe are joking about going to Ukraine. One of his best friends will be in Vietnam. </p>
<p>Study-abroad programs have a lot to lose if students don’t have a great experience and come home safe and sound.</p>
<p>I think all this technology is reducing our trust on people who deserve it, including our kids. It’s kind of sad.</p>
<p>People are always telling me they want their 8 or 10 year old to have a cell phone for the safety, so they can call for a ride. I agree with others that kids (and adults) would be safer if taught what to do when they don’t have a phone - look for help in a store, scream, stay alert. A phone tracker tracks the phone, not the owner.</p>
<p>I have a child like OP described - friendly, fun, space cadet…She went to Paris with a school group when she was 16. She came home looking like she’d been to war (bronchitis, pneumonia, sleep deprived) but wearing that passport around her neck. She’d been able to work the ATM and seemed to have spent her money almost wisely. Her group was combined with another school and two people in that group had been robbed at an ATM - a student and a teacher. They used the ATM at night, in a non-central area. Bad decision.</p>
<p>I worried the entire time she was gone, and I’ll worry the next time she goes anywhere. My child was one of the only ones who didn’t have a cell phone. Our plan didn’t have an international upgrade, and the teachers all had phones so I could just phone or text through them.</p>
<p>Why not just ask that she text you once a day? </p>
<p>My problem with that–as someone who has to fight the urge to worry–is that it’s asking a lot of someone who is caught up in her daily life. There will be times when the OP’s daughter is too busy, has no service, or simply forgets. If that makes the OP freak out unnecessarily, I think that might make it worse.</p>
<p>I have forced myself into the “no news is good news” camp. The overwhelming majority of travelers, including kids studying abroad, make it home with no incident.</p>
<p>Also, logically speaking I agree with collegealum314. A phone is not going to help someone who is kidnapped or sold into the sex trade or whatever. That and the victim’s wallet would be the first things confiscated.</p>
<p>Um…where is the OP?</p>
<p>Still here. I just don’t have much more to add at this point. </p>
<p>You may find out that your daughter is not quite the ‘complete airhead’ that you think she is when she has to stand on her own two feet. My D’s can’t find their own shoes at home, but can navigate international travel on their own just fine. Part of a trip like this is about expanding your horizons- internal as well as external. </p>
<p>And btw, you single out the visit to an “insane asylum in Ho Chi Minh City” as an example of a scary part of the trip that would justify tracking your daughter. The phrase “insane asylum” conjures up images of people visiting the original Bedlam (Bethlem Hospital in London) in the 17th-18th centuries to gawp at the inmates. It is at best anachronistic and at worst offensive. Whatever the facility is, it is not a boogyman, with inmates who are going to leap out at your defenseless little girl. </p>
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<p>doesn’t look like it… I know Burma was in the news a lot a few years ago, but hopefully things there have calmed down there.</p>
<p>I think people are being a little harsh; in OP’s title, she says ‘willing child’. She is asking for suggestions on tracking systems/devices; not to be judged on her and her child’s decision to engage in tracking.</p>
<p>As noted…any device used to track will be tracking the device…not the kiddo. </p>
<p>Well, as a 18-year-old student, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a parent doing whatever they can to ensure their child’s safety. I would gladly take a tracking bracelet (or whatever it is they have) if I thought it would soothe my mother in my absence. It doesn’t suggest paranoia to me, it suggests concern.</p>
<p>When I studied abroad, I called my parents once a week or more if possible. If I disappeared, honestly they wouldn’t have known for a while. They didn’t know for a while that I was in the hospital. Yet, I survived just like 99.99% of people that go abroad. </p>
<p>Tracking systems can be removed unless you’re going to get him/her chipped. If you really feel like that’s necessary, she probably is not ready to go abroad. That simple. </p>
<p>Yes, that’s the point many of us were trying to make. A tracking device will be of very little use in ensuring safety; in fact, I think it would not only infantalize the girl but also give OP a false sense of security. </p>
<p>I don’t know about Burma but I am quite sure that traveling in South East Asian countries is safer than traveling in some countries in Europe. Also safety depends on the activities that the travelers get involved with. Visiting an insane asylumn is unsafe? If that’s true then everyone in that country is insane.</p>
<p>Furthermore, what can the parents do when they know their kid is in trouble in thousand miles away in a short amount of time? And can the parents monitor the child 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?</p>
<p>Can she use an iPhone where she’s going? I’ve used “Find My iPhone” to locate/track my daughters (with their permission) in Mexico and Punta Cana. Not sure how far that service extends. It was comforting to be able to log in from time to time and know where they were. Regular texting is comforting as well. </p>