"My Little Savior", a new device developed by the Microsoft Corporation in cooperation with Spiritual Blessings, a nonprofit religious advocacy group, helps parents monitor and preempt dangerous and obscene thoughts in children's minds. The device uses cutting-edge technology to give parents a higher degree of security than ever before, My Little Savior's inventors say.
First, a small microchip is surgically embedded under the child's skin, just above the neck behind the child's head. Working in conjunction with the embedded chip, a wireless Internet connection is used to warn parents, via e-mail alerts or cell phone pages, the moment questionable thoughts arise in the child's mind.
Using a computing technology Microsoft calls "Fontanel.NET", the microchip, once configured to "read" a particular child's brain waves, senses when a child's thoughts have deviated from normal patterns and are at risk of entering what its inventors term the "red zone".
"The red zone is fully definable by the child's parents," said Charles Fallon, Fontanel.NET team leader at Microsoft. "Our goal has never been to tell a parent what he or she can or can't do, which would in effect be telling parents how to raise their kids. On the contrary, the red zone can be configured to include any type of mental content the parent feels is objectionable."
Fallon says that this customizability of the "red zone" is what he expects will be most appealing to parents. Using a simple web interface, parents can select from a variety of variables to monitor, as well as choose their preferred method of notification. E-mail and paging are available now, with wireless "brain to brain" alerting coming soon, Microsoft says. Microsoft is currently working on another chip that can be embedded within a parent, which will vibrate softly whenever a child's thoughts have entered into the "red zone".
The parents we talked to who have tested the device say that the most common options they utilized were the sexual images and violent urges controls. Within each of these two options, a whole range of adjustments can be made, parents said.
A parent can select from many degrees of partial nudity, for example, to trigger an instant alert. Whereas in the past, parents were forced to accept childhood fantasies as an innocent part of growing up, with little control or ability suppress such fantasies, My Little Savior's inventors say that parents no longer have to stand by idly and let their children fend for themselves. Parents can address such thoughts immediately, helping to prevent unsafe thoughts from recurring.
Sexual images and violent urges are only two of many options available to users of the device. Parents may also choose to be notified when a lack of certain thoughts or images have been detected during a specified timeframe. Religious parents, for example, might choose to be e-mailed when God or Jesus have not been projected within their child's mind's eye.
Critics of My Little Savior argue that parents may attempt to use the device to punish children for mere thoughts, which they say may likely never be acted out in reality. Images of "pre-crime" detectives arresting criminals before crimes are committed, as conceived by author Philip K. Dick and later depicted in the film Minority Report, are conjured up by the device's critics. But supporters of My Little Savior say that such claims are farfetched and strictly the stuff of science fiction. Still, a spokesman for Spiritual Blessings says that certain restrictions should be placed on the usage of My Little Savior, to prevent any possibility of misuse of the device.
"We need to take precautions to ensure that My Little Savior is used as intended," Joanne Wellesworth, the Communications Director of Spiritual Blessings said. "But first, we need to make sure that every parent has access to a My Little Savior, regardless of income level."
Wellesworth says that the federal government should institute formal standards of usage, which she says could be very similar to the current MPAA film rating system. Certain thought patterns would be acceptable, in Wellesworth's view, whereas others deemed unsafe would be regulated.
"Finally, obscenity can be stamped out at the root," Wellesworth said. "No longer will we have to worry about the harmful effects of external influences on our children's minds. When it comes to obscenity, children literally won't think twice about it."
