For those who don't know, a QR code is Quick Response Code that, when using a smart phone or webcam, you can scan the picture and get information such as websites instantly, here's my blog QR
Found this site today (http://store.safetytat.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23&products_id=102) it is the safety Tat QR, which is a site where you can design QR codes to hold emergency contact information and then make a transfereable 'tattoo' to stick to your childs arm, then if that child goes missing on a day out and someone finds them, they can scan the code and contact the parents.
My housemate was outraged by this, saying 'just another thing thats turning us all into products...one more step to becoming robots'
My gut reaction was that, 'well you've obviously never lost a child in an amusement park', even if only for 10 seconds, its quite possibly, for me at least, the worse feeling in the world but then it did get me thinking what about the abuse of this marvellous idea, would it encourage kidnappinbg/randoming or have I been watching too many thrillers recently??
What about the use of QR codes in other ways for children, T.G.I Fridays have QR codes on the back of their children's menus to link the children to the Facebook page:
'The menus provide marketers a way to target children and their parents' (http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/software-technology/11004.html)
I know that marketers use children all the time to target their products as a way to nag parents into buying them something or taking them somewhere and I couldn't help but feel uneasy about this quote, especially with 'Facebook' in there, is it right? Or is this just going too far?
And what about the open use of QR tags and pushing them into the children's arena?? How safe are QR tags? By targeting children, we're saying that QR tags are fine for children to use, but are they? You have no idea what's behind a QR tag so should we be openly using them for anyone to abuse??
