---
title: "China Gives GPS-Tracking Wristwatches to 17,000 Kids"
description: "The Chinese city Guangzhou gave 17,000 GPS-tracking wristwatches to elementary schoolchildren. The watches let parents monitor what their kids are up to."
date: "2019-07-18"
modified: "2019-07-18"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-gps-wristwatches-kids"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "china"
  - "privacy"
  - "surveillance"
  - "the digest"
---

# China Gives GPS-Tracking Wristwatches to 17,000 Kids

![The Chinese city Guangzhou gave 17,000 GPS-tracking wristwatches to elementary schoolchildren. The watches let parents monitor what their kids are up to.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/china-gps-wristwatches-kids.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Shutterstock/Tag Hartman-Simkins\</em\>*

## Kid Trackers

Last week, 17,000 elementary schoolchildren in the Chinese city Guangzhou got a bizarre gift from the local government: a GPS-enabled smartwatch that tracks their location in what officials are calling a new safety initiative.

The distribution, [first reported](<https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3922818>) by the Chinese news outlet *Guangzhou Daily*, is the first step of a voluntary program to help parents keep track of their kids' whereabouts. But it's also, [per *MIT Technology Review*](<https://www.technologyreview.com/f/613978/china-gps-beidou-gives-location-tracking-watches-to-17-000-children-privacy/>), an extension of China's ever-growing [surveillance state](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/chinese-casinos-ai-facial-recognition>).

## Phase One

So far, 8,000 of the kids have activated their watches, which developer [BeiDou](<https://futurism.com/china-just-moved-one-step-closer-to-completing-a-global-satellite-network>) claims can [track them](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-video-surveillance-watch>) down to a 10-meter radius.

Ultimately, Guangzhou officials hope to issue a total of 30,000 kid-tracking watches in addition to a bracelet that can monitor the elderly, per *MIT Tech Review*.

The wristwatch sends data to parents' phones, giving them a real-time glimpse into what their kids are up to and whether they might be getting into trouble — though it's unclear how the program might be ramped up in the future.

**READ MORE:** [China’s government has given location-tracking watches to 17,000 children](<https://www.technologyreview.com/f/613978/china-gps-beidou-gives-location-tracking-watches-to-17-000-children-privacy/>) \[*MIT Technology Review*\]

**More on surveillance:** *[Privacy Expert: Surveillance Cams Will Soon Be Impossible To Spot](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/privacy-ai-surveillance-cameras>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)