Selecting a Wearable GPS Device for Children

A missing child is a parent’s worst nightmares.When a child is missing, even for a very short time frame, it is hard for a parent not to entertain a variety of horrifying scenarios and outcomes. In recent years, GPS technology has offered a practical solution to this dilemma in the form of smartphones and wearable tracking devices. For younger children, who are ten years old and under, many schools do not permit them to have phones on hand due to its distractive nature. So, wearable tracking devices become the only option for parents who want to keep track of their young children by default. Moreover, without missing a beat, the wearable industry has made this observation and has consequently introduced many wearable devices to the market. The quantity and variety of these wearable devices may certainly be for the consumer’s benefit as manufacturers compete, but it puts the consumers in a moderately overwhelming position as they attempt to browse through the options of an unfamiliar sector of technology. This paper will address the decision-making process of selecting a wearable tracking device for young children by using the hierarchical decision model (HDM). Through literature review, we will identify relevant features with which we construct the model, and identify the top options for the model to choose from