I can hear kids screaming now. “I’ll sue! Invasion of privacy.”

Seriously, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo will start offering a cellphone-based kid-tracking service from next spring.

The target is elementary schools and cram schools. Parents will be able to track the whereabouts of the children - know when they arrive and leave school.

It works as long as the child has the special software installed. The kid will press buttons to notify parents and guardians when they are coming and going. (Good luck getting the kids to remember to push the buttons, much less getting them to remember the number.)

Parents and teachers will track kids arrival/departure times on a computer screen. (Kind of like watching the flight board at an airport maybe.)

The cost - Y300-500 ($3-5) and a special handset, provided by DoCoMo of course intended for young users.

Software will be provided in an ASP (application service provider) format.

It’s good that there will be such a service to help protect our kids. It’s sad that it has come to this.

Next - a chip implanted into kids’ rears that is activated and deactivated when they sit and stand?