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CNN Live Today

Keeping Kids Safe with High-Tech Device

Aired July 19, 2002 - 12:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A lot of you are no doubt wondering how to do that. After all, no one can watch every child at every moment. So some folks are going on high-tech ideas.

Ross Palombo with CNN San Francisco affiliate KRON has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Definitely watching the kids.

ROSS PALOMBO, CNN AFFILIATE KRON REPORTER (voice-over): With every punch and kick, every move 8-year-old Chad (ph) makes, John McComas is within striking distance, standing by only a window away watching his son.

JOHN MCCOMAS, PARENT: I am always either watching where they are at, or another parent is watching the kids.

PALOMBO: But increasingly, parents are seeking a second, more secure set of eyes.

TOM GOTUZZO, WHERITY WIRELESS: This is one of our more popular ones.

PALOMBO: And at the San Francisco Spy Shop, it's lenses more and more families are looking for.

GOTUZZO: They come straight up to the counter and tell me, I need something to monitor my children.

PALOMBO: From standard security cameras...

GOTUZZO: Run the cables straight to your VCR and/or your TV.

PALOMBO: ... to camera clocks, to high-tech seeing teddy bears. Owner Jason Woodside (ph) says parents want it all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it's definitely the way to go. I mean, anything you can do to prevent, you should do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a huge demand for those products, just because there is a huge, huge problem out there.

PALOMBO: In Redwood City, the solution is a wristband that can be tracked by satellite.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the child feels threatened, they would push this one button in the middle. The device would lock on their wrist so you can't remove it.

PALOMBO: With it, parents can zero in over the Internet. Children can send a cry for help directly to police.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are really marketing this product as a parental tool, to help manage your family activities. So it's not taking place of your good parental supervision.

PALOMBO: But that is exactly what child safety advocates are worried these gadgets will give us, a false sense of security.

And when it comes to his kids, McComas believes nothing high-tech comes as finely-tuned as his own two eyes.

MCCOMAS: That might be something I would be interested in, but I think at this point, just keeping an eye on our own children, I think that's all that we feel is necessary, my wife and I.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Our thanks again to Ross Palombo with KRON.

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