This is obviously for little kids, not teenagers sneaking out.

As a parent with small children, a subtle fear of them getting lost or kidnapped is always at the back of the mind.

Hey Billy want to come to cool sex drug party? Aw I cant my mom will know. Oh Billy don't ya know ? You gotta rip that out and attach it underneath your school bus seat.

Joking but in all honesty kids are smart and creative. As such most will find ways around this. They'll even come up with a slang word for these like "narc shoes" or something

"Surveillance-minded" (hereafter, "Helicopter") parents were almost certainly already doing that.

It just required a sharp knife and a tube of contact adhesive previously.

This reminds me of an episode of Black Mirror that I can't remember the name of.

I'm not concerned with tracking where my kids are with these, but tracking their shoes sounds kinda useful. Average daily conversation in my house:

"Where are you shoes?"
"I don't know?"
"You were just in the middle of putting them on!?!!"
"Yeah but... I can't find them now."
"How? You had them in your hands?!?"
"That was, um, before I got distracted."
"*sigh* Let's go try and find them."

A lot of people don't know this, but you can put your weed in there.

Just give them a phone. Then at least they get something they want with it, instead of ugly shoes.

Kids have a distinct advantage in this ongoing consumer tech war between parents and kids.

I don't use TikTok, but I'd be pretty surprised if this wasn't already starting to trend there, along with ideas for where to put the airtags to fool parents.

Maybe just... talk to your kids?

"Can"? Were they physically unable to before?

be kid

find this in your shoe

get idea

catch seagull

tie airtag to its foot.

go see mom having a fit

The peak of evolved kids shoes are those with wheels on the heels ("Heelys")

Parents worry about their kids. All mammals I've ever heard of do this. So when you tell human parents that they can have a better chance of finding their kids if their kids are missing, injured, or abducted, that's going to appeal.

I don't believe it's about sUrVeIlLaNcE at all.

For mine kid(if I would have them) I would tell them to have those tracks, but only with a deal to not use it against kid. Like kid skipped a school and I will can't use that track info as a proof to punish kid. So, only use it as a real safety of kid, not as spying it

showing my age but when I was a kid during the summer or on weekends I'd be out of the house all day and just where ever in my town. My parents didn't care as long as I was either home for dinner or by the time the street lights came on. and if I wasn't home for dinner I had to find a phone and call not because my parents would be worried but so they either wouldn't have to cook as much or set out a plate for me.

When the kids find the “hidden” compartments immediately and swap their tags around.

Seems like an ok idea until you realise you could just give them a key chain, or put it in the small pocket in their trouser if you think they'll lose it. That way you don't have to buy into a whole ecosystem of shoes with a slot that fits an airtag.