To GPS or Not To GPS?

I got a new phone today at the Sprint store, an awesome piece of work called the Palm Pre. While getting me set up, the guy at the counter asked me if I wanted to keep the GPS locator on my phone. For the unfamiliar, this feature lets you locate your cell phone or the cell phone of anyone else under your plan using GPS. I used it last winter to find my cell phone after some kid found it at the local park and decided to take it for a walk. With my wife on Skype and on Sprint’s GPS website and me on my wife’s cell phone- a real Mission: Impossible setup-, we were able to find the phone discarded in some bushes a few blocks away.

Anyway, this offer from the guy at the Sprint store kicked off a conversation about the ethics of using the GPS locator feature to keep tabs on teenagers or other family members. I know some parents who would shudder at the thought of setting foot in their teenager’s room much less using a network of satellites to track their every move, all out of some inexplicable reverence for human privacy. I’ll tell you flat-out I have very little respect for these parents.

In my view, I have a few very well-defined responsibilities as a father. One of those is to provide for my children. Another is to protect my children. Third, I have the responsibility to teach them to make the world a better place and to make themselves better. I don’t see anything in these responsibilities about bowing down before the god of privacy. Nope, if I’m paying, I get full access. I may choose not to exercise that full right out of discretion or sensitivity, but I do reserve that right as a parent.

So you may guess where I fell in the discussion. I am all for tracking my kids’ movements if I suspect foul play. In the meantime, I do my best to make sure I won’t have to suspect foul play. I was happy to know my wife agreed.

Where would you fall on this issue? Would you GPS them or would you resist?