In recent years, children’s smart watches have gained popularity among parents due to their features such as telling time, making calls, and location tracking. Most parents purchase these watches for their children to gain a sense of security. However, can such a watch truly provide safety for children?
Although children’s smart watches enable instant communication and real-time location tracking between parents and children, they also come with several security risks.
Potential Security Risks of Children’s Smart Watches:
Risk 1: There is a possibility of leaking the child’s whereabouts. Many parents’ phone numbers are linked to their child’s smart watch. If a hacker knows the parent’s phone number, they can deduce the smart watch’s ID number from it, thereby obtaining the child’s exact location.
Risk 2: There is a risk of leaking phone, identity, and other sensitive information. Since parents use a mobile app to link with their child’s watch, information such as the parent’s phone number, bank card number, and contact list may be stolen by malicious actors, leading to various issues caused by information leaks.
Risk 3: Eavesdropping may occur silently. Many smart watches now have calling, listening, and recording functions. Through these vulnerabilities, malicious actors can listen to the child’s voice at any time and understand the child’s environment. If the watch is left at home, it can also record conversations between parents, posing a significant risk of privacy leakage for both the child and the parents.
Risk 4: It may sever the connection between parents and children. Many parents believe that by giving their child a smart watch, they can contact them anytime and anywhere, leading to a false sense of security. In reality, negligence on the part of parents can provide opportunities for malicious actors, potentially resulting in a direct loss of contact between parents and children, which could lead to more unexpected dangers.
The First Guardian of a Child’s Safety is Not Electronic Products
Surveys have found that many parents are conflicted about whether to purchase children’s smart watches. Some parents believe that their children need to go out alone, and since they are busy with work and cannot always be by their child’s side, having a smart watch allows for convenient communication and a sense of security regarding their child’s whereabouts.
On the other hand, some parents, faced with such high risks of privacy exposure, cannot help but ask two crucial questions: why and what to do.
The author believes that the first guardian of a child’s safety is not electronic products, but rather the parents themselves. Just because a child has a smart watch does not mean parents can relax their vigilance. This is clearly not the case. Parents must remain alert regarding their child’s safety; a moment of negligence could lead to the child going missing or encountering other accidents. Therefore, the parental responsibility of supervision cannot be replaced by any electronic product. Additionally, it is also necessary for children to learn some safety knowledge and develop self-protection awareness.
Therefore, even if a children’s smart watch has already been purchased, parents should not develop a dependency mindset. They should still pay attention to human protection and not let electronic products become an excuse for negligence.
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Source: Xinhua News Yunnan Channel Comprehensive, Image Data Source: Internet
Editor: Liu Ning, Ma Yiwen