Superheroes may be invincible, but children aren’t; Apple Watch and kids, buyer beware

By Sarah Aminoff of Safe Tech International; Image courtesy Flo Freshman

In 1965, any American youth could tell you that the coolest gadget was comic book hero Dick Tracy’s smart watch, a two-way wrist radio. If you grew up with Dick Tracy comics, you knew you just HAD TO HAVE ONE of these state-of-the-art two-way wrist radios that helped the detective hero fight crime and “nab the bad guys”.

So, what exactly do these cool gadgets have to do with technology? Apparently, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, has been a great admirer of Dick Tracy’s smart watch since the age of six. So, fifty years later, he had the good fortune to make a real-life gadget much like the one from his childhood.

In the 1940s, Chester Gould, creator of the Dick Tracy comic series, was inspired by Al Gross, who not only invented a two-way radio-watch but went on to invent the walkie-talkie, telephone pager, garage door opener, and cordless phone.

Tim and Chester were in good company when it came to their shared admiration of the smart watch. Some think, American engineer, Martin Cooper (an integral part of the team that developed the mobile phone) was inspired by Captain James T. Kirk of Star Trek who used a cellphone communicator on the show. However, Cooper himself refuted this; he too had gotten his inspiration from Tracy’s two-way wrist radio. Either way, humanity is indebted (or not) to Dick Tracy for inspiring tech gadgets that would change children’s lives forever.

What if six-year-olds ran the world?