5 yr old girl "snatched" in Wales

[mumblechum1]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-19795761

Let's all keep our eyes peeled

tagging isn't viable option.it's knee jerk reaction to tragedy

I'm not talking about the government tagging anyone. Just families could perhaps do it.

People wouldn't know if a child was tagged. Though I take your point that it might increase the risk of someone being killed instead of just taken.

I haven't thought it through at all.

Ed yes...and then once it's the norm...the government will be tagging anyone who isn't conforming.

hobnob You do make a very good point, obviously an idea that will never materialize due to those reasons.
I never thought about it like that

I have gps tagged my 2 oldest, well their phones, I can go online and see exactly where they at any time and set a loud alarm to go off on their phones from my computer. I have 2 of those Mummy I'm here bears for my youngest girls in case they wander off in a shop I press a button and a loud alarm goes off from a little teddy bear attached to their shoes and it automatically goes off if they are a certain distance (I think its about 150 feet).

My kids don't know I have put those apps on their phones and the girls just know they put little teddy bears onto their shoes when we are going out.

I would not be in favour of some sort of national tagging system.

Despite the efforts I have made to keep track of my children I know that if someone wanted to take one of them then in reality there isn't an awful lot I could do other than keep them under lock and key.

Being able to track where they are realistically isn't going to stop anything bad from happening to them.

my bil is a police officer and a friend of his was involved in a high profile murder investigation some years ago where a man was convicted of the murder of his wife without a body (I can't remember her name now). My sister was asking him how they could be sure as there was no body, and he said that there is evidence that just means you know that a death has occurred.

Even if this man isn't guilty of April's murder, there is no way the police would make this a murder investigation if they weren't absolutely sure she was dead.

There have been other high profile disappearances over the years, and although in some cases the likelyhood is that the child was murdered, all avenues of enquiry have still been left open, even where cases have been closed iyswim.

Tagging would only increase a false sense of security ' oh it's fine, she's at a friends house/ at uncle jimmys/ playing outside. Statistics show that abuse and murder is most likely to be inflicted by a known person

The only possible useful purpose of tracking would be for situations described above where your child wanders off in a busy place... Hmm, again, I would rather keep hold of my childrens hands tbh. I don't think it's helpful to have some kind of system they aren't even aware of. It might also lead the parent into being less safety conscious in those situations too... Thinking 'oh well if they do run off I'll find them'.
Not my parenting ideal tbh

oh and at what age would the tag be removed/deactivated?

I may well know the case you are talking about wannaBe, was it in Scotland by any chance?

jaynee I have thankfully never had to use them, and I certainly don't use them instead of keeping an eye on my children. Its there just in case, things do happen sometimes no matter how vigilant you are.

Well gps tagging would help to locate a body wouldn't it so maybe one that could be turned on and off in emergencies.

Its only the same as giving birth to a child so it can provide genetic material to save an older sibling or the like.

If it was available, i would use it. My dogs are microchipped, if it meant i could find my child dead or alive i would use it.
It would help the police, search and rescue teams, find a child quickly if it went missing however so, no scrambling of police helicopters.

It was just an idea not so much a serious one and of course it would be open to abuse, what isn't. But if only the parent or guardian held the ability to switch it on?.... And it would be removed at a certain age.. the more i think about it the more i would be tempted to use it.

There's nothing worse i could think of than the loss of a child then the added inability to find their body so i could lay them to rest.

And what if the child's body was buried. You would still be able to find them.

Yes - and to be able to track their whereabouts hopefully before it even got to that stage.

It's a fantasy - and a reaction to what has happened, of course it is but still. I do see a day when this becomes a legitimate possibility.

Like I said I never want to live in a country that wouls tag any of it's citizens.

I would use GPS :(

Until i had children i wouldn't have wanted to be in a society where any of its citizens were tagged, either.
Unless they had been tagged as punishment for being a criminal.

I would be happy to do it to keep my children safe.

Tagging?

Well, pets get tagged because we 'own' them. They are property, like cars and jewels. We don't 'own' other people, i.e. our children - ownership of other people was the basis of slavery. We are responsible for our children, but they are not our property?

No, I think pets are tagged generally because we feel responsible for them, and we love them and want them to be kept safe.

Well some people might do it for financial reasons etc but that wouldn't apply to kids anyway.

and I cannot imagine any parent tagging their child purely in a quest for ownership - if that's the premise then there's a lot more to worry about than a microchip and hopefully social services would be involved.

I do know someone whose MIL is GPS tagged. She has Alzheimers and often goes off wandering. The GPS is attached to her walking frame, as she can't go far without it. It does help find out where she is if she wanders off.

Pets aren't GPS tagged though - a microchip doesn't help you find them, only to identify them if they are found.
If someone is willing to kill a child, I don't think they would baulk at removing a GPS tag once they had abducted them.

but where on earth is the tagging bit coming from anyway?? It' s a freaky idea, and wouldn't help in this case any way.

The numbers of child abductors hasn't changed at all, per year, since records began, about 50 per year since 1950.

The point that many people here are missing is that most children who are murdered/raped/abused/kidnapped are not attacked by strangers, but by their own families or people known to them. The dangers children face from strangers are miniscule. Therefore, tagging them is utterly ridiculous. No wonder children are growing up with no sense of responsibility or ability to assess risks for themselves.

Agree with Boris. The risk of your child being abducted by a stranger is tiny. I spoke to my dd about this last night. She said that she KNOWS she should never go off with a stranger. I have reiterated that she should never go anywhere with anyone without telling mum, dad or teacher etc - no matter what they say.

'No wonder children are growing up with no sense of responsibility or ability to assess risks for themselves.' Where is this coming from?