Little Buddy Child Tracker can send alerts to smartphones if children aren't where they are supposed to be. Image from Flickr.

The most recent child abduction case to go national was the sad story of Somer Thompson, a 7-year-old Florida girl who was missing for days before detectives found her body in a landfill. No doubt this case will convince many parents that the Little Buddy Child Tracker is a good investment.

The Little Buddy Child Tracker is just what it sounds like. It “combines global satellite positioning and cellular technology to signal the child’s whereabouts to a computer or smartphone,” says Sun-Times Media.  The benefits of this device are obvious, but this particular child tracker has an additional advantage: It’s a lot less expensive than previous devices of the same type.

How much does Little Buddy GPS cost?

Most GPS devices so far have retailed for $200 to $500. The Little Buddy Child Tracker is cheap by comparison; it retails at Best Buy for about $100. Granted, many families don’t have $100 per kid just lying around, but maybe grandma or another relative would be willing to put up a cash loan to help keep the kids safe.

Of course, there are a lot of arguments against the Little Buddy Child Tracker. Sun-Times Media reports that “the device immediately drew angry writeups from some techies, who called it a reason for children to run away from home.” And, of course, for children of a certain age, people are arguing that Little Buddy Child Tracker is an invasion of privacy.

Focusing on what’s important

I don’t think any of the arguments against Little Buddy Child Tracker can trump this: It might save a child’s life. Granted, it might not. Sure, abductors will find out about these GPS devices; they’ll check for them and ditch them if they really want to carry out an abduction. But what if they don’t? And there’s no arguing that it would eliminate the problem of a child getting lost.

I think all of the minor problems people have with Little Buddy Child Tracker are no match for a kid’s life. I am sure there are not any parents out there who don’t believe that even the minor possibility of saving their their child’s life is worth $100. Of course, I’m not a parent. Does anyone else out there have other arguments for why parents should not use Little Buddy Child Tracker?